T-Minus Turnabout
by Sith Droideka
Summary: In which Franziska von Karma is simultaneously the best and worst influence a young girl can have, and Clay Terran is accused of murder.
1. Prologue

**A/N: When I started work on my other fic, Sith recommended I write a casefic just to get a feel for writing court scenes and solving mysteries and things. Of course, I already knew how to do that because I helped write a multi-casefic before, and I'm good at mysteries, so whether or not this was technically necessary, well, no. But still, I thought it'd be a good opportunity to flesh out an AU I came up with a while back!**

**Between this and Turnabout Blue Earth, I hope we won't become known as "those weird people who keep writing way-too-long AJ-era AU casefics".**

* * *

_July 23, 10:32 PM, Wright Talent Agency_

Phoenix was a little afraid to find out why his twelve-year-old daughter was locked in the bathroom and calling for him. Nevertheless, he knocked on the door.

"Trucy? What's wrong?" he said. He hoped it wasn't anything serious; he was supposed to be at the Borscht Bowl Club about two minutes ago.

"Daddy, there's…" Trucy began - her voice was muffled by the door but Phoenix could hear the mixture of excitement and horror in it - "There's _blood_ in my panties, Daddy!"

"What?" There was no way he heard that right.

"Not my magic panties, Daddy, the ones I wear," Trucy said, "I think I just got my first period!"

Okay. This was serious. "Are you sure?" Phoenix asked, knowing full well it was a dumb question.

"Yeah," Trucy said, "Daddy, what am I supposed to do? They didn't go over this in school."

"I… I don't know. Uh, let me call someone," Phoenix said, grabbing his phone and almost dropping it. The thought _I'm too young for this_ crossed his mind.

"Who are you gonna call?" Good question.

"Give me a minute," Phoenix muttered. It wasn't like he knew anything about this sort of thing, nor did he know very many people who could explain it to either him or Trucy. Maybe Maya? Wait, that could work.

It took a couple of rings before someone picked up. "Hello," the person on the other end of the line said, "Mystic Maya is busy right now, so-"

"Pearls? Is that you?" Phoenix said, recognizing her voice.

"Mr. Nick?" Pearl said. "Why are you calling so late? Actually…" her inflection changed to anger, and Phoenix could just imagine her pushing up her sleeve, "why didn't you call before?"

"It hasn't been _that_ long since I last - never mind. Can I talk to Maya?"

"Mystic Maya's busy right now," Pearl said again. "Maybe I can help you?"

Yeah, maybe she could. She was a bit older than Trucy, wasn't she? So maybe she'd already gone through this stuff. "I guess. Pearls, I need someone to, uh, well, Trucy got her first period and neither of us know what to do, so…"

There was a really long pause. Finally, Pearl said, "I'll go get Mystic Maya," and Phoenix was put on hold.

"How's it going, Daddy?" Trucy yelled through the bathroom door.

"Hang on," Phoenix yelled back. This was a disaster.

"Nick?" Maya's voice finally crackled over the phone line. "What's up? Pearly said something about you asking some really weird questions."

"Yeah," Phoenix said, "See, Trucy got her first period and neither of us know what's going on, so I kinda need someone to explain this sort of thing to her and tell her what to do. Because I don't know." _And I'm not sure I want to_, Phoenix added privately. Anything that would induce Pearl to interrupt Maya like that was probably bad news.

"Uh, I, uh, I'll try," Maya said, "Um, give Trucy the phone, I guess?"

Phoenix knocked on the bathroom door. "Aunt Maya wants to talk to you," he announced. Trucy opened the door a crack, grabbed the phone, and slammed it shut, locking it again.

A short time later, she cracked the door and handed Phoenix back the phone. "That was really useless, Daddy," she said, shutting the door yet again, "I think she was too embarrassed to talk about it over the phone. Also, Aunt Maya said to tell you that she said to stop drinking grape juice so much." Yeah, yeah.

"Sorry, Nick," Maya said.

"Wait, Maya-" Phoenix protested, but she hung up. _I guess that rules out Mia, too_, he thought. Great. Now what? How many other women did he know? Maggey Byrde? No, Trucy had never met her and there was no way Phoenix was going to have her explain this stuff to _him_ so he could pass it onto Trucy. The less he knew, the better. Adrian Andrews, maybe? No, he could already see how _that_ would go: badly. Ema Skye? Nah. Lotta Hart? …maybe Larry was right when he said Phoenix didn't know enough girls.

So who else could he call? Then it hit him: Franziska von Karma. Okay, that was pretty questionable idea at best, to be honest. But at the very least, he couldn't see Franziska of all people being too delicate to be useful. So he called her.

She picked up on the first ring. "What are you doing calling at this hour, Phoenix Wright?"

"It's only 10:40," Phoenix said, irritated, "and don't tell me you were asleep."

"What do you want?"

"Okay, well, you know my daughter, Trucy, right?"

"Of course I do," Franziska said, "what do you take me for?"

"That was more of a… conversational lead-in… anyway! Franziska von Karma! I need your help," Phoenix said quickly.

"Continue," Franziska said.

"Well, Trucy got her first period and neither of us know what to do, and I haven't been able to find someone to explain this stuff to her yet. So I was hoping you could do it…?"

There was silence at the other end of the line, and then Franziska said, "I will explain to her in person. Prepare for my arrival." And then she hung up.

Only now did it occur to Phoenix to call the Borscht Bowl Club and tell them he might be late.

Twenty minutes later, Franziska walked in unannounced, whipped Phoenix out of the way, and knocked on the bathroom door. She was holding a plastic grocery bag with some boxes in it. "Trucy Wright," she said, "I am here to help you. Please open the door." She then turned to Phoenix. "Go to your job. I will handle this."

Phoenix took one last look at Trucy as she opened the bathroom door yet again, nodded, and left. There was a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that maybe Franziska wouldn't be the greatest of influences on young Trucy, but he ignored it. What could possibly go wrong?

* * *

_Three Years Later_

_March 13, 3:00 PM, Los Angeles International Airport_

Ever since that night, Trucy had grown close to Aunt Franziska, apparently adopting her as some sort of mother/older sister figure. This proved convenient for Phoenix, for the most part, since he never had to give his daughter The Talk, for example, but on the other hand, for about a week every month Phoenix because Trucy and Franziska's whipping boy. Literally, in the latter case. He wondered how much money he had spent on chocolate bars, and if he would ever regain his dignity. But in general, things had worked out well. Or so he thought.

"What."

That was really the only thing Phoenix could say. This had to be a bad joke. There was no way he had returned from a trip overseas with Edgeworth to find a shiny new prosecutor's badge pinned to the white band on Trucy's top hat.

"Hi, Daddy!" Trucy said, bouncing on the balls of her feet, "I see you noticed my badge!"

"Huh?" Phoenix honestly didn't know how to react. Was this real?

"I passed the bar exam!" Trucy said cheerfully, tipping her hat to make the badge more visible.

"Huh? Huh?"

"Are you surprised, Phoenix Wright?" Franziska, who had been watching Trucy while Phoenix was overseas, and had accompanied Trucy to airport to pick up Phoenix and Edgeworth, said, "Do not be. Your daughter is a very intelligent girl, and she studied under me. Of course she would be a prodigy."

"Huh? Huh? Huh?"

"Didn't you know about this?" Edgeworth said, amused.

"No! No, I didn't!" Phoenix said, staring at Trucy. "Why… why a _prosecutor_, of all things?"

"I'm not _just_ a prosecutor, Daddy," Trucy said before either Edgeworth or Franziska could make "and just what do you mean by that_"_ comments, "I'm a magician prosecutor! Look," she added, producing a piece of paper out of thin air, "pretend it's an autopsy report."

"Uh… very nice," Phoenix said. What had Franziska done?

"Miles Edgeworth," Franziska said, "when will Trucy Wright's debut be?"

Edgeworth rolled his eyes. "How am I supposed to know?" He unsuccessfully dodged a whip, and Phoenix wondered how Franziska had been able to get past airport security with that thing. "This is the first I've heard about her passing the bar exam. I'll be sure to assign her to a suitable case once one comes up."

"I can't wait!" Trucy said, bouncing again. The fact that Edgeworth was Trucy's boss now made Phoenix kind of uncomfortable.

"By the way, Trucy," Edgeworth said, jabbing his finger in her general direction, "don't display your badge like that. It's tacky."

"_Daddy_ always displayed _his_ badge back when _he_ was a lawyer," Trucy said, pouting, with hands on her hips.

"He was a defense attorney," Edgeworth said, "and you are a prosecutor."

"So?"

Phoenix, trying very hard to remain calm, left the now-bickering Edgeworth and Trucy, and Franziska, who was either mediating or provoking them, to go get their bags. This was going to be a very long day. Possibly a very long year.

* * *

_March 16, 7:44 AM, Wright Talent Agency_

It was far too early and the phone was ringing far too loudly for Phoenix. What did he do to deserve this? Groaning, he picked up the phone. "Hello," he croaked. Maybe he _should_ lay off the grape juice….

"Daddy! Guess what!" Trucy shouted. Phoenix held the phone a good twelve inches away from his ear. "Guess!"

"What?"

"You're no fun," Trucy said, back to a more tolerable volume. "Anyway, I'm going to be debuting today! You should come and watch!"

Phoenix sat up in bed. "What? You are?"

"Yeah! Uncle Edgeworth just assigned me! It looks like we have a really solid case, too. I think I'm gonna win!"

"The important thing is to find the truth," Phoenix pointed out.

"Yeah, I know," Trucy replied, "but I'm pretty sure that the defendant really did kill the guy."

"Oh, it's a murder?" Phoenix said. He should probably go get some coffee, but sitting up was bad enough. "What a great way to start your career."

"Yeah," Trucy said, "we have an eye-witness and everything!"

"Don't forget, it's usually the simple cases that have the most snags," Phoenix yawned. "So, when's the trial?"

"10:00!" Trucy said cheerfully. "Courtroom number three!"

"I'll be there," Phoenix promised. "Go review your case, I'll see you later. I love you."

"I love you too, Daddy," Trucy said, and she hung up. Phoenix laid back down. He had almost two hours to bring himself to get dressed and bike over to the courthouse. He could handle that. What he wasn't so sure was how he would handle the courthouse itself. It seemed like such a long time since he'd been there… almost seven years now.

This was probably going to be the most difficult day of his life, and not just because his baby was growing up.

* * *

_March 16, 9:57 AM, District Court, Prosecutor's Lobby #3_

Trial started in three minutes and Trucy, who was currently receiving last-minute tips from both Franziska and Edgeworth, had yet to see her father. Maybe he was already in the gallery? _Or maybe Uncle Edgeworth is right and he's too hungover to show up on time_, Trucy thought. She rarely concerned herself with Phoenix's grape juice problem, but this was her debut trial! Where was he?

"Do not worry about Phoenix Wright," Franziska said. "If he is late, he shall taste my whip."

"Okay," said Trucy. She didn't really approve of Franziska whipping Phoenix so much, but it was just what Franziska did. And he probably deserved it, especially if he was going to be late for his daughter's first trial, apparently.

Or apparently not. Phoenix ran in just as Franziska and Trucy finished talking. "Heya," he said, slightly out of breath.

"Hi, Daddy," Trucy said.

"Took you long enough," muttered Edgeworth, checking his watch.

"Uh… traffic?" Phoenix said, putting his hand behind his head.

"You ride a bike," Edgeworth said, glaring at him.

"Stop bickering," Franziska said, brandishing her whip.

Fortunately the bailiff showed up before the scene descended into chaos. "Miss Wright, trial is about to begin."

"Showtime!" Trucy said, skipping towards the door. The three adults wished her luck.

"I think I'm going to cry," she heard Phoenix say as she left, "Edgeworth, hold me."

"Don't touch me."

* * *

_March 16, 10:00 AM, District Court, Courtroom #3_

"Court is now in session for the trial of Mr. Robert Rebor," the Judge said.

"The prosecution is ready, your Honor," Trucy said. She was nervous, but she knew she wasn't alone: Franziska was sitting in the gallery right behind her and, judging by the whispered argument, so were Edgeworth and her father.

"The defense is ready, your Honor," the sallow, balding man in a green suit at the defense stand said.

The Judge nodded. "I see we have a very young new prosecutor," he said, looking at Trucy.

"Yes, your Honor," Trucy said, "I just got my badge last week!"

"Ha!" the defense said, "A rookie! Don't worry, little girl, I'll go easy on you. That's a promise from _Diesen Payne_!"

_What kind of name is that_, thought Trucy. Also, didn't this guy have brothers at the prosecutorial office?

"Very well," said the Judge, "Miss Wright. Your opening statement, please."

_Time to give them the ol' razzle-dazzle!_ Trucy thought. She nodded. "On the night of March 15th, at around 11:00, Mr. Rebor was witnessed adding a suspicious substance to the coffee cup later used by Mr. Adam Mada. Additionally, a container with traces of arsenic - the poison that killed Mr. Mada - was found in Mr. Rebor's car, and had partial fingerprints on them that belonged to Mr. Rebor." She produced both the arsenic container and Mada's autopsy report out of thin air and submitted them to the court as evidence.

"I see," said the Judge, "Any questions so far, Mr. Payne?"

"No," said Payne.

"Very well. Miss Wright, you may call your first witness to the stand now," the Judge said helpfully.

"Okay," said Trucy, "the prosecution calls Lisa Basil to the stand!"

A blue-haired woman wearing a blue suit with flashing lights on it took the stand.

"Witness, name and occupation, please," Trucy said.

"My name is Lisa Basil," the witness said, "I am the head of Blue Screens, Inc., a computer programming firm."

"And both Mr. Mada and Mr. Rebor are employees of yours, correct?" Trucy said.

"That is correct," Basil replied, holding her hand up.

"Witness, please testify about what you saw Mr. Rebor doing to Mr. Mada's coffee cup," Trucy said.

Basil cleared her throat. "At approximately 11:06 on the night of April 15th, the only employees at the firm were myself, Mr. Rebor, and the late Mr. Mada; everyone else had gone home. It was at this time that Mr. Rebor volunteered to go get some more coffee; I declined, but I did happen to glance over at the employee recreation area, where we keep the coffee machine. As I did so, I saw Mr. Rebor adding some sort of powder to the red coffee cup, which Mr. Mada typically used. Ten minutes after delivering Mr. Mada's coffee to him, Mr. Rebor suddenly said he needed to go home and left."

The Judge nodded. "Mr. Payne, you may begin your cross-examination." Trucy wondered what he was going to do. In her opinion, Basil's testimony was pretty solid.

"Witness," Payne said, playing with his hair, "When exactly did Mada _die_?"

"That didn't happen until shortly after Mr. Rebor had left," Basil said, and then added, "It was quite gruesome." Trucy found it just a little bit disturbing, the way she maintained her calm, friendly demeanor even though she was talking about the murder of a long-time employee.

"Did Mada not drink his coffee until then?" Payne said.

"No, he drank some before Mr. Rebor left," Basil said, "It was somewhat late, so he was understandably tired."

Payne smirked. "It seems to me as though the poison wasn't added to the coffee until _after_ Rebor had left!"

"Objection!" yelled Trucy - oh, wow, her first objection! - "Mr. Payne, you should probably read the autopsy report again. Mr. Mada's death was the result of long-term exposure to arsenic! The exact time that Mr. Mada actually died was really more a coincidence than anything else. It just so happened that the night of April 15th was the night that Mr. Mada could survive no more!"

Payne jumped back. "Impossible!" he said.

"Yes," said Basil, her lights blinking slowly, "I'm afraid that Mr. Mada's health had deteriorated in the months before his death."

"How sad," commented the Judge.

"Well - did Rebor usually prepare Mada's coffee?" Payne demanded.

"He did," Basil said, "at the time I thought he was merely exhibiting good teamwork skills."

"I can see why you would think that," noted the Judge, "Why, the bailiff usually makes my coffee for me, and naturally no one would think he was trying to kill me!" He then glanced at the bailiff like he wasn't sure about that last comment.

Payne paused, and then changed his line of attack. "Witness," he said, "did Rebor give a reason as to why he needed to go home?"

"He said there was a family emergency," Basil explained.

"However," Trucy interjected, "Mr. Rebor's only family is his estranged wife, who never saw him that night." She pulled Mrs. Rebor's statement out of her magic panties and submitted it to the court.

Payne jumped back again, then started flipping through the court record. _Almost got him!_ Trucy thought triumphantly, and then reminded herself that Payne had yet to fall into the trap she had laid.

"Miss Wright," Payne said, looking up from the court record and smirking, "it seems you've missed a fatal contradiction in the witness' testimony."

"I have?" said Trucy, smiling cheerfully.

"Yes," said Payne, playing with his hair, "Ms. Basil has clearly stated that she saw Rebor put the powder in Mada's _red_ mug. Why, then, is the mug in the crime scene photos _green_?"

The crowd burst into discussion and Basil began sweating as the lights on her suit flickered faster. Trucy merely started bouncing on her heels. "That's no contradiction," she said cheerfully, "because that's not the mug that was poisoned."

"Whaaaaaaaaat?" yelled Payne as the Judge banged his gavel a few times to silence the court.

"The red cup with the traces of arsenic in it was found in Mr. Rebor's car along with the arsenic container," Trucy explained, pulling the red coffee cup out of nowhere and submitting it as evidence, "so. Witness, is it true that Mr. Rebor was the one who usually used the green cup?"

"Yes," said Basil, "every member of our firm uses a different color coffee cup. It makes it easier to keep track of who's supposed to wash which one."

"Therefore, Mr. Rebor must have switched his cup - which showed no traces of arsenic, by the way - with Mr. Mada's before leaving," Trucy said, extending her hand, fingers splayed, "presumably to direct suspicion away from the coffee."

"W-Well, can we _really_ be sure that the powder the witness saw my client adding to Mada's coffee was actually, in fact, arsenic? What if it was sugar?" Payne said, backpedaling.

"Mr. Mada liked his coffee black," Basil said.

"The coffee dregs in the red mug contained no sugar, or even milk or cream," Trucy said, "it was definitely plain black coffee… except for the arsenic, anyway."

"But the fingerprints!" Payne said suddenly, sweating, "The fingerprints recovered from the container were only partial! They must have been planted!"

"Objection!" Trucy said, having fun now. "The reason why they were partial prints is because someone had tried to wipe them!"

"Objection! How did you get the prints if they were wiped? Your Honor, the prosecution is clearly forging-" Payne began.

"Objection!" Trucy interrupted him, "he clearly didn't do a very good job of wiping the prints! And keep your wild accusations to yourself!"

The Judge nodded. "Objection sustained," he said, "and Mr. Payne, I expect better of you. Please don't accuse Miss Wright of forging evidence unless you have some way to prove it. Persist, and I'm afraid I'll have to assign you a penalty."

Payne screeched. _How rude_, Trucy thought, irritated, _I bet he's only saying that because Daddy was caught in that evidence-forging scandal. Doesn't he know that Daddy was set up? It's so obvious!_ But now was not the time to get into that.

"T-The motive!" Payne shrieked, "The prosecution has yet to provide a motive for Rebor to kill Mada!"

"That's simple," said Trucy, "didn't you look at Mrs. Rebor's statement?" She read it out loud to the court: "'I haven't seen Robert since I left him for Adam three years ago, and that includes the night of the 15th.' - clearly, Mr. Rebor resented Mr. Mada for stealing his wife."

Payne jumped back. "No!" he yelled, "Nooooooo! You're wrong!"

Trucy smiled at him. "Do you have any evidence that proves that?" she asked.

"Uh, I, er…" Payne said, and then presented something random. The Judge gave him a penalty.

"Your Honor, I think it's clear who the real killer is," Trucy said.

"I agree," said the Judge, "Any objections, Mr. Payne?"

"I… I… um…" Payne said, sweating, "N-No, your Honor."

"Very well," said the Judge, "This court finds the defendant, Robert Rebor… **GUILTY**."

The crowd cheered and confetti fell as Payne screamed, apparently in anger at being defeated by a fifteen-year-old girl. Rebor was lead off in handcuffs. "This court is adjourned," the Judge said, banging his gavel.

* * *

_March 16, 10:43 AM, District Court, Prosecutor's Lobby #3_

"Great job, huh, Daddy?" Trucy said, bouncing.

"Yeah, great job!" Phoenix exclaimed, pulling her into one of those spinning hugs where Trucy's feet left the ground and her cape smacked the nearest person in the face (which in this case was Edgeworth).

"You did that on purpose," Edgeworth muttered. Everyone ignored him.

"Yes, Trucy Wright, excellent job. This is only the beginning of your winning streak. Appreciate it," Franziska said.

"I don't care about a winning streak," Trucy said, hands on her hips, "all that matters is finding the truth."

"Good girl," said Phoenix.

"Hmph," said Franziska.

"But I did a good job of finding the truth, right, Uncle Edgeworth?" Trucy said.

"Of course you did," said Edgeworth, adjusting his glasses. "I'm very proud of you."

Grinning, Trucy turned to Phoenix. "Okay, let's go get some noodles!" She turned to Franziska and Edgeworth. "You two should come too!" Phoenix made a "my poor wallet" expression, and Trucy decided not to tell him until later that she intended on paying for it.

"It's a little early for lunch," said Edgeworth, "and I have work to do, so I'll-" Franziska whipped him. "Fine, fine. Let's go." And so they went.

* * *

_April 17, 3:01 AM, Wright Talent Agency_

Things had been busy for Trucy lately. Her first month as a prosecutor had gone well, although one of the detectives seriously couldn't believe she answered to Mr. Wright's daughter sometimes. And her winning streak had grown into an actual streak, meaning that she had had two more cases since her debut. At the same time, she had to reduce her shows at the Wonder Bar from every night to a couple times a week if she wasn't currently assigned to a case, which sucked because Trucy missed the bar's mascot/freeloading stray/pet cat Bullets, whom she sometimes used in her show and usually was the only one who remembered to feed him.

But other than that, everything was good. Or at least it was until the doorbell rang in the middle of the night.

Sleepy and somewhat irritated, she stumbled to the front door - which she always kept locked when Phoenix was out all night on the poker circuit - and looked through the peephole. Edgeworth was standing out there, and he looked like he had come over in a rush - he was still wearing his pajamas and his hair stuck up kind of weird, although he was wearing an overcoat. Trucy opened the door. "What's up, Uncle Edgeworth?" she yawned. "Daddy isn't here right now-"

"Wright's been arrested," Edgeworth said abruptly. Trucy froze up.

"…w-what?"

"Something happened at the restaurant where he plays poker," Edgeworth said, starting over, "and your father's being detained on suspicion of murder. Don't worry," he added quickly, catching Trucy's expression of horror, "he's already hired a defense attorney, and as far as I can tell, no one can really believe he'd do something like that."

"Oh… okay," said Trucy. She'd heard stories about how Phoenix had been accused of murder twice before, and both times came out totally fine. "Is he at-"

"-the detention center, yes, but you can't visit him yet," Edgeworth said, "No one's been assigned to the case yet, so right now you're just an ordinary family member." He adjusted his glasses. "Wright called me and asked me to keep an eye on you until… after the trial."

Trucy nodded absently. "Does that mean I'll be staying at your house?"

"The trial should be in a few days," Edgeworth said, then added, "I'm sure he'll get a 'not guilty' verdict."

Trucy nodded again, silently took Edgeworth's hand, and let him lead her back to his car. It was raining.

* * *

_June 15, 10:29 AM, Los Angeles_

Just as Edgeworth predicted, Phoenix was declared not guilty without a hitch, or rather with only one hitch, which everyone except for the short, angry defense attorney elected to ignore. When Phoenix had handed Trucy that ace of spades, she thought about the way Diesen Payne had tried to accuse her of forging evidence back in her debut trial, but she chose to give her father the benefit of the doubt. That way, it was only _concealing_ evidence, not forging it, and either way he wasn't_ technically _a lawyer, so what was the worst that could happen? Also, Trucy had chosen to not mention this incident to Edgeworth. As far as she knew, he hadn't heard of where exactly the card had come from in the first place.

However, the short, angry defense attorney had returned despite swearing not to. Trucy had decided to enlist his help in finding her panties. She figured he might as well, since Phoenix had asked him to find the man who hit him with a car (which landed him in the hospital, where Trucy pretended to not notice his "mineral water"), and then Eldoon asked him to find his noodle stand. However, for the sake of Apollo's rapidly-thinning patience, Trucy decided to accompany him… which actually seemed to wear on him even more, especially when Trucy decided that Little Plum Kitaki wasn't actually as scary as everyone seemed to think she was.

They decided, after a fashion, to search the park, which was currently closed off with police tape. Even if they were there on completely unrelated issues, Trucy saw no problem with just waltzing in on the grounds that she was a prosecutor, so crime scenes weren't off-limits to her.

"That is a blatant abuse of power," Apollo muttered.

While they were there, they ran into the detective, Ema Skye, who refused to talk to them, saying, "I _know_ you're not assigned to this case, Trucy, and I have no idea who _this_ kid is," at which point she wandered off, eating snacks. Trucy could easily imagine Edgeworth recommending she threaten to cut Ema's salary, but that probably wouldn't accomplish anything. Except for maybe eliciting more whining about how Trucy got "preferential treatment" from Mr. Edgeworth all the time.

However, there had been a murder, and both Apollo and Trucy kind of wanted to know more about it - Trucy hadn't heard about it yet because she got the day off due to her father being sent to the hospital - and Trucy was too impatient to ask whoever was heading up the investigation what happened when she got back to work. Besides, this was right around the corner from the newly-renamed Wright Anything Agency! She had a right to know!

Therefore… she needed to get Apollo into Ema's good books. Shouldn't be too hard. They just needed to prove that Apollo had some sort of connection to Phoenix, and then Ema would be a lot nicer (actually, that was too strong a word. More tolerant). Phoenix's proposed way to do this was to bring her some fingerprinting powder that Ema had given him nine years ago. Judging by the fact that he kept referring to it as "white powder", and Apollo's reaction overall, Trucy figured that Phoenix was playing some sort of joke on Apollo, which Trucy decided not to ruin.

Hopefully Apollo wouldn't report the Wrights for cocaine possession before he found out what it _actually_ was.

On the way back to the park, they ran into one of Trucy's co-workers, Klavier Gavin. He was the one in charge of the murder case at People Park, and also immediately made it some sort of life's goal to irritate Apollo. He also didn't really bother questioning why Trucy had earlier let Apollo wander around the crime scene on her authority, considering neither of them had anything to do with the case.

"You could've just told me that Mr. Wright sent you," Ema said once Apollo had presented her with the fingerprint powder.

"I tried to," Apollo said. "You weren't listening to me."

"Neither of you are related to the case," Ema said, munching on her Snackoos. "And Trucy, I seriously thought you were going to do something more… entertaining with your day off. Why don't you go watch a movie or something?"

"I'm helping Polly with his investigation," Trucy said cheerfully.

"Of what?" Ema said. Clearly not this.

"I'm supposed to… find some things," Apollo said, "like the car that hit Mr. Wright… or that," he added, pointing at the noodle stand.

"Ah," Ema said, "okay. But that doesn't explain why you feel it's necessary to butt in on the glimmerous fop's case."

"We're not butting in," Apollo protested at the same time Trucy said "Professional curiosity!" by way of explanation.

"…right," Ema said. "Well, you two might as well make yourselves useful." And the two of them spent the next half hour helping Ema with her forensic things that Trucy always wondered why she was allowed to get away with them. There was a _reason_ she wasn't a forensics officer.

An hour later, they were back at the crime scene, this time with an official reason to be there: Apollo's defense of the suspect, Wocky Kitaki.

"I don't get it," said Ema, once Apollo had mentioned that he'd gotten a job actually relating to his profession, "why are you helping him, Trucy?"

"I'm not assigned to this case," Trucy pointed out, "and it's still my day off. I can do whatever I want."

Ema stared at her for a while, then said, "I hope you're not planning on being his co-counsel, at least. Mr. Edgeworth might let you get away with _everything_, but there's probably a line there."

Apollo rolled his eyes. "I don't need a co-counsel," he said.

"There's nothing wrong with co-counsels," Ema snapped, "it's just that it's really, really weird to have a prosecutor as one."

"Well, I wasn't really planning on it," Trucy said, which was partially a lie. She was invested now.

"Good," said Ema and Apollo at the same time. _Rude_, thought Trucy. Co-counsel position was out, but she still wanted to see how this would turn out. Speaking of seeing… she should probably go over that thing with Apollo. The thing with the power that her dad mentioned. (Sometimes she wondered how he knew this stuff.)

* * *

_April 16, 10:00 AM, District Court, Courtroom #2_

Trucy was in the gallery just behind the defense. She wasn't entirely sure that Apollo knew she was right there, either. He would need her help sooner or later, Trucy was sure - especially since he had completely ignored her attempts to explain his "perceive" thing to him and flat-out rejected her offers to let him practice it on Phoenix (Trucy knew all sorts of fun topics that made Phoenix tense up, although she had yet to catch _all_ of his tells and was sort of looking for help on that front, anyway).

Fortunately for Apollo, he had everything completely under control, despite the fact that Klavier had started calling him "Herr Forehead" and also Wocky Kitaki was probably the worst client ever and seemed to have a crazy guilty verdict-wish. Trucy had prosecuted someone like that before, and that trial was an even quicker win than her debut one. _Poor Polly_, she thought. But other than that, he was doing well. At least until the first witness was called.

Wesley Stickler was very a tense man, apparently. And Apollo was a very oblivious one. Trucy hit him in the head with three balled-up pieces of paper before he finally picked one up and read it.

"Use your power, you dummy," it said, "see how he keeps fiddling with his book? He's lying!" Apollo glanced back up at Trucy, clearly confused. Trucy scribbled "YOUR BRACELET" on another piece of paper and threw that at him, too.

"I see you've captured the heart of Fräulein Wright, Herr Forehead," Klavier said, leaning forward.

"Ignore her," Apollo said, "just let me continue the cross-examination, your Honor." Fortunately for his case, Apollo actually listened to Trucy this time around and was able to continue taking apart Stickler's testimony, which dealt the prosecution a major blow, even if no one had any explanation for Stickler's actions until Trucy threw a "He's the one who took my panties!" message at Apollo. After that, it was simply a matter of the Judge suspending court and ordering both sides to further investigate.

_June 16, 2:23 PM, Wright Anything Agency_

"What a trainwreck that was," Apollo said grumpily.

"You're welcome," Trucy replied, bouncing. It was at this point that Alita Tiala, the one who had hired Apollo in the first place, walked in and thanked Apollo for his hard work, keeping Wocky from getting the guilty verdict for at least another day.

After she left, Apollo adjusted his tie and sighed. "Well," he said, "time to set out and continue the investigation."

"I'll go with you," volunteered Trucy, and they set off to the detention center, and Eldoon's house, and the Kitakis' house, and back to the detention center again, and back to People Park….

At some point they returned to Hickfield Clinic, where Apollo had suddenly come up with all sorts of questions to ask Phoenix, who didn't really answer anything directly, except for mentioning that Klavier was the prosecutor at the trial that ended in his disbarrment seven years ago.

"Really?" Trucy said. She wasn't aware of this.

"You didn't know?" Phoenix replied.

"I'm surprised you let her work with him," Apollo said, eyebrows raised suspiciously.

"You say that like I had anything to do with Trucy becoming a prosecutor," Phoenix said dismissively. "Besides, it's not like I'm mad at Rock-boy there anyway. I'm not the type to hold grudges."

"Klavier's very nice, too," Trucy added cheerfully, "like a prince." She frowned. "I wish someone had told me, though."

"I thought you would have remembered," Phoenix said.

"Remembered?" Apollo said.

Phoenix nodded. "Trucy was there at the trial, but that's a story for another time, isn't it?"

Trucy nodded too, racking her brain. She had only been eight seven years ago… he wasn't talking about her biological Daddy's trial, was he? Come to think of it…. "Yeah. But I guess that explains why Uncle Edgeworth's so mean to Klavier."

"Mean?" Phoenix said, raising an eyebrow.

"That's not really the right word," Trucy said, and stuck out her tongue. "What I mean is, I've kind of noticed that Uncle Edgeworth keeps assigning him to really weak cases, or cases that require a lot of investigation, like he doesn't want him to be in the prosecutorial offices all day. He also doesn't mind when Klavier goes off touring with his band."

Phoenix laughed. "That's Edgeworth for you. He never believed for a second that I actually did forge that piece of evidence."

"Did you?" asked Apollo.

Phoenix was silent for a moment and then said, "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. It doesn't really matter now, does it?"

"B-But…!" Apollo started, but Phoenix cut him off.

"I'm not an attorney anymore," he said, "that's the only truth you need to know. Edgeworth and Klavier Gavin can both think what they want." He looked at Trucy. "Me, I have more important things to concern myself with." After that cryptic-remark-turned-sweet, he didn't seem to want to talk anymore. Apollo and Trucy set back off on their investigation, and neither Phoenix nor Apollo seemed to notice that Trucy had shoved all of Phoenix's "mineral water" into her magic panties before leaving.

The most exciting parts of the rest of the day mostly consisted of almost walking in on a robbery, Apollo stealing some evidence (Trucy was too preoccupied with the thought of her biological father's trial to stop him), and finding out from Eldoon that Apollo's client was dying. After that, there wasn't much else to do, so Apollo and Trucy went their separate ways, with Apollo heading back to his apartment (which he shared with a friend, apparently) and Trucy heading back to Hickfield Clinic, where Edgeworth was going to pick her up. Phoenix didn't want her to stay home alone for more than a day at a time anyway, and the recent murder in the area probably didn't help. While Trucy was waiting, Phoenix mentioned that he was interested in seeing how Apollo did at the trial tomorrow.

"You could always come with me to watch," Trucy said.

Phoenix rubbed his chin. "I would have thought that you'd go back to work tomorrow."

Trucy shrugged. "As long as you're still technically in the hospital, I get time off."

"Technically?" Phoenix laughed, "I'm not _technically_ in the hospital if I'm watching a trial, you know."

"Yeah," Trucy said, "I guess a better way to phrase it would be… as long as Uncle Edgeworth thinks you _should_ still be in the hospital, I get time off."

"He knows as well as you do how sturdy I am," Phoenix joked. "He wouldn't be surprised to find that I checked myself out after two days."

"That's why you don't tell him you're out until after the trial," Trucy suggested.

"Yeah, and shut off my cell phone during the trial," Phoenix said, then added, "You know he'll be mad at you for lying."

"It's not technically lying," Trucy protested, "especially since you're the one not telling him, not me. I have nothing to do with this," she said innocently, then added, "Besides, Uncle Edgeworth pretty much never gets mad at me."

"Unless it's about the badge?"

"Unless it's about the badge." Trucy giggled. It had been three months since she'd first gotten it, and she still displayed it on the band of her hat, no matter how much Edgeworth (and occasionally Franziska) insisted that prosecutors were supposed to keep their badges in their pockets.

"Ema texted me to whine about how Edgeworth lets you get away with anything earlier," Phoenix said.

"I think she just thinks it's weird that I'm helping Polly with his investigation," Trucy said.

"Why are you doing that anyway?"

"Well, at first I was trying to help find my magic panties, but then we came across the murder, and my professional curiosity kind of took over."

"Please don't tell me you were his co-counsel."

Trucy pouted. "Why does everyone keep saying that?"

"It's _really_ weird for a prosecutor to be at the defense stand," Phoenix said, "trust me on this."

There was a knock on the (open) door and Edgeworth walked into the room. "Speak of the devil," Phoenix laughed. Trucy didn't get it.

* * *

_June 17, 10:10 AM, District Court, Courtroom #2 Gallery_

Apollo was on a roll. Alita Tiala was called to the stand, and both Trucy and Phoenix quickly agreed that she was most likely the real killer. Phoenix commented that she reminded him of his ex-girlfriend from college, "Well, sort of, it got pretty complicated towards the end," and Trucy made a note to herself to go over some of the old case files lying around the office sometime.

"Gotcha!" Apollo yelled, catching Tiala in a lie.

"Wow," Trucy said, "did you see that, Daddy?"

"I usually don't," Phoenix said, "What did she do?"

"I don't know, I couldn't even see it!"

Phoenix leaned over slightly, looking intently at the witness stand. "We are a little further away than Apollo is."

"I think Polly's just really good at this," Trucy said, shrugging.

"It must be the bracelet," Phoenix said.

"If you say so, Daddy."

Not long afterwards, recess was declared to run some tests on that bullet that Apollo had previously stolen from the crime scene. For a minute, Trucy thought Phoenix would reprimand her for letting him do that, but then she remembered that Franziska had once mentioned that Phoenix used to do that sort of thing all the time. Apparently it was only bad if prosecutors did it.

Thirty minutes of tense waiting later, and Apollo had the case in the bag for about thirty seconds until Wocky Kitaki took the stand, confessed, and subsequently had his heart crushed into tiny, tiny pieces.

"See," said Phoenix, "that's the kind of reaction you want to get from a boy who wants to date you."

"What?" said Trucy. _Not this again_, she thought.

"As in, turn him down," Phoenix said, "No dates."

_Seriously?_ thought Trucy. Not that it was a big issue right now, but why did he have to be like this?

Fortunately for Apollo, Wocky's "confession" was pretty much completely ignored and Apollo's attack on Tiala continued, this time with the Judge backing him up. There was a moment where Trucy worried that Tiala was going to get away, but Klavier stepped in. _If I ever get a proper rival_, Trucy resolved, _I'd help them in court, too! _As it turned out, Trucy was a bigger help than she anticipated: her magic panties were the final blow to to Tiala's presumed innocence. Tiala was arrested (_Good_, Trucy thought. She hadn't appreciated her slight against Wright Anything Agency) and Wocky was declared not guilty.

"I would have thought that he'd've removed your panties from the court record," muttered Phoenix.

"Yeah, I need them back," Trucy said, "they hold things a lot better than my bag does. I mean, I _still_ have the grape juice you snuck into the clinic in there."

Phoenix stared at her. "So _that's_ where…"

Trucy rolled her eyes. "Mineral water is clear, Daddy. Not purple."

* * *

_June 17, 4:12 PM, District Court, Defendant's Lobby #2_

Trucy and Phoenix watched silently as Apollo dealt with a very angry client and attempted to diffuse the tension between said client and his father.

"What is this kid's problem?" Phoenix mumbled under his breath. Trucy was kind of glad she was the only one who heard him.

"His father's really nice, though," Trucy commented as Wocky ran out of the room.

"And now Apollo's involved with the mafia," Phoenix joked.

Trucy elbowed him. "Didn't you hear him? Mr. Kitaki's opening a _pie shop_!"

"A former mafia family," Phoenix amended his joke.

"Well, let's head back, Polly!" Trucy said, walking over to him. "To Wright Anything Agency!"

"Since when do I work for your agency?" Apollo snapped.

"Aw, we make a good team!" Trucy said, tipping her hat. Apollo rolled his eyes.

"You didn't really do anything," Apollo retorted. Trucy threw a rolled-up ball of paper at him.

"…fine," Apollo said, throwing a glare at Phoenix, "but only because I have some unanswered questions."

"Alright! Let's go claim our reward from Mr. Eldoon!" Trucy said, grabbing both Apollo's and Phoenix's arms and marching them out to the 3rd floor lobby. They were met by Edgeworth, arms crossed and glare steely and dangerous-looking.

"Wright," he said, and his voice was like ice, "I thought you were still in the hospital."

"Ah ha ha," Phoenix said, sweating, "I wasn't expecting to see you here."

"Isn't that the chief prose-" Apollo began, but he was cut off when Trucy caught Phoenix's "Run for your life!" gesture and dragged Apollo out the door as fast as she could. "Trucy, just what is going on?"

"It's a bad idea to stick around when Uncle Edgeworth gets really angry like that," Trucy said cheerfully, "hopefully Daddy can get him to calm down…"

"Yeah," Apollo said, his expression plainly reading _Just what am I getting myself into?_ "Hopefully."

* * *

_June 17, 6:03 PM, Wright Anything Agency_

At least Trucy got her day off. As far as Phoenix was concerned, that was the only good thing that came out of this. The only other things that came out of this were Edgeworth yelling at him for almost half an hour before finally agreeing to give Phoenix a ride back to WAA due to the fact that Trucy had taken the bike already. This turned out to be a terrible mistake because Edgeworth was _still_ angry and now they were stuck in traffic so he took the opportunity to continue lecturing Phoenix, which eventually turned into listing off every single grievance that had been racked up in the decade since they had come back into each other's lives, and by the time they made it Phoenix's part of town, Edgeworth had started nagging him about his grape juice consumption.

"I can quit any time I want," Phoenix grumbled, defending himself for the first time since they had left the courthouse. This only earned him a smack upside the head.

Which resulted in Phoenix flopping straight down on the couch as soon as he got inside. All in all, not a great day.

"Hi, Daddy," Trucy said, "traffic?"

"Yeah," Phoenix groaned.

"You didn't grab anything to eat, did you?" Trucy said, "I already had some noodles, so I didn't make anything for dinner."

"It's fine," Phoenix said.

There was a pause. "How mad was Uncle Edgeworth?" Trucy said.

"Really mad," Phoenix replied, touching the back of his head where Edgeworth had hit him. It didn't really hurt, but he was a little concerned for his hair, even if no one ever saw it under the beanie anymore.

"He's right about the grape juice, you know," Trucy said suddenly, pinning him with one of her really intense serious stares.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Phoenix said.

"I can see you biting your lip, you know," Trucy said, "I _know_ Uncle Edgeworth told you to stop drinking."

"I can stop any time I like!" Phoenix protested. _Trucy_ wouldn't smack him for saying that, at least.

Trucy rolled her eyes. "You say that every time, Daddy."

* * *

**This is only the prologue, so the actual case doesn't start until the next chapter. In the meantime, yes, I _did_ feel as though you all needed to see how Apollo's first two cases would (or wouldn't) change if Trucy was a prosecutor.**


	2. Day 1

**A/N: Glad to know that you guys like my story so far~! I'll be trying to update frequently, but as I type this author's note I still have one and a half chapters of this fic still unwritten, plus the other fic(s) I'm working on - I'd appreciate it if you'd check those out, too - but I just injured my hand, so the going's slow.**

* * *

A man's jacket billowed up on the surface of the black water. The last bubbles dissipated. In the harsh glare of the streetlamp, a sturdy figure fled into the night.

Half an hour later, an exhausted Clay Terran returned to the apartment he and Apollo shared.

* * *

_June 28, 5:46 AM, Gatewater Apartments, Room #281_

Of all the people to force their way into his house this early in the morning, Detective Ema Skye, flanked by two armed cops, was probably the last person Apollo would have expected. And Apollo, who had run into the front hallway/kitchen/main room area to see what all the commotion was, was in his underwear since the air conditioning was busted again.

"Clay Terran lives here, right?" Skye said.

"Yeah," Apollo said, gesturing nervously towards Clay's room, "he's still asleep, I think-"

Skye nodded at the two cops, who kicked open the door, shook Clay awake, and handcuffed him.

"What's going on?" Apollo demanded over Clay's wailing.

"We received an anonymous tip about fifteen minutes ago," Skye explained, "and they were right about the body in the river at People Park, so…"

"Hold it," Apollo said, "there's no way you did _any_ sort of investigation in fifteen minutes. Why not just bring him in for questioning at a more reasonable hour instead of breaking into our apartment and arresting him?!"

"We were told that he was a very dangerous man," Skye said, looking away, "and I heard from Trucy that he had a roommate."

"Did you now?"

"Well, more like I heard from Trucy that _you_ had a roommate, and I remembered the name." Skye shrugged. "The point is, we figured that a speedy arrest might be more prudent."

"Apollo!" Clay yelled as the officers marched him past Apollo and Skye, "I can't get arrested now! Launch is in _eighteen months_!"

"You'll be fine!" Apollo yelled back. "Don't worry! I'll get you declared innocent before you lose any serious training time!"

"Thanks, dude!" Clay shouted over his shoulder as the cops lead him away.

"Are you two normally that loud?" Skye asked.

Apollo didn't say anything and merely stared at the door through which his best friend had just been taken away in handcuffs. "What?" he said after a moment, "Oh. Yeah."

"Um, right," Skye said, "well, I'm only here to search Mr. Terran's apartment, but I guess I can stay out of your room." She coughed. "You should probably go get dressed."

Apollo suddenly remembered for the second time that morning that the air conditioning was broken. He ran to his room, slammed the door, and wondered if he would ever be able to look Detective Skye in the eye ever again.

Five minutes later, Apollo, dressed in his work clothes because technically he usually got up soon anyway, joined Skye in Clay's room.

"Detective Skye," he began.

"Call me Ema. There's no need for titles once you've shared a bottle of fingerprinting powder!" she said, adjusting her glasses.

"That's a new one," Apollo said, "anyway, do you really have any reason to suspect him, apart from some tip?"

"Sort of," Ema said, "the person on the other end of the line claimed to have seen Terran push a body into the river, and they were able to give a pretty accurate description of him."

"If they called him by name, they obviously knew him," Apollo pointed out.

"They said they followed him to his apartment and found out who lived there using the room number," Ema said.

"…which means there was a 50-50 chance of you arresting _me_?"

Ema shrugged. "Maybe they knew you had brown hair, not black hair like they described. Anyway, we thought it was a prank at first but we dredged the river just in case - obviously, we found a body, but he hasn't been identified yet."

"Do you at least know the cause of death?"

Ema looked at him for a minute, probably wondering if she should share information with the defense - especially since it was unlikely that even the prosecution had been assigned yet. Then she said, "We don't know at this point. No wounds or superficial marks, though, so that rules out stabbing, shooting, strangling, bludgeoning-"

"I get it," Apollo said.

"Actually," Ema continued, "we _did_ find something interesting in one of his pockets. Apollo, do you recognize this?" She pulled some sort of small object in a plastic baggie out of her pocket and handed it to Apollo.

He examined it. It appeared to be a little plastic model of the Luna 2 spacecraft, the first manmade object to reach the moon. He looked dubiously at Ema. Sure, it was a little obscure, but who's to say the victim wasn't some sort of space nut? However, Ema merely looked expectantly at him. He turned it over and his blood went cold. On the very bottom, in tiny, cramped block capitals, was "C. Terran".

"Does he usually write his name on his models?" Ema said.

Apollo nodded. "Especially if he wants to bring them somewhere," he said, "back in high school he would always lose them, and for some reason the guy at the lost and found never wanted to give anything back unless there was a name on it, so I guess he got in the habit."

"So, why exactly would a corpse found in a _river_ be carrying one of Terran's models?" Ema said, looking smug.

"I don't know yet," Apollo said, handing the evidence bag back, "but Clay wouldn't kill someone."

"We'll see about that," Ema said, "no matter how well you know someone, you'll always be surprised by the terrible things they can do."

Apollo ignored that cryptic remark and continued questioning her. "Any idea who actually left the tip?"

"No," Ema said, now searching through Clay's dresser and appearing to not approve of his fashion sense, "that's why I said it was an _anonymous_ tip, idiot."

"But if they claim to be an eyewitness-"

"It was an anonymous hotline, too, so tracking them down is out of the question," Ema sighed, "and at any rate, they clearly thought Terran was someone to be feared, so they'd probably refuse to testify anyway."

"He's completely harmless," Apollo assured her.

"If you say so," Ema said, shutting the drawer.

"How soon can you ID the victim, anyway?" Apollo said.

"That's a good question," Ema muttered. "Oh, wait, Terran's not antisocial, is he? Animal abuser? Weird fetishes?"

Apollo gaped at her. "Of course not," he said. And why would _he_ know about that last one?

"Then he probably knows his victim-" _Wait, was she trying to find out if Clay fit the bill for a serial killer?_ "-which means you might, too." She handed him a washed-out photograph of a man's face. It was purplish and slightly puffy-looking, but Apollo's heart sank nonetheless. The curly black hair and high cheekbones were familiar.

"I take it you recognize him," Ema said, and Apollo didn't need to look at her face to see she was smiling smugly.

"Yeah," Apollo said hollowly, "I think his name is Bernie Dejeu."

"And I take it it was Terran who introduced you two in the first place."

"Neither of us knew him all that well," Apollo protested, "he was just some weird ex-boyfriend of Clay's girlfriend-" Ema's grin told him he should probably stop there.

"I can see where this is going. Nice work," she said, "digging a huge hole for your client before trial even starts."

"Ha ha," Apollo said sarcastically, "come on. I'm sure there's plenty of evidence yet to be uncovered."

"Like, say, a testimony," Ema said, "care to give me the name of this girlfriend you mentioned?"

Apollo groaned. This wasn't going well. "Badriyyah Zuvan," Apollo admitted, slightly unsure that he had pronounced it correctly, "they've been dating for almost a year now, I think."

"We'll be sure to contact her," Ema said. "I guess if you're lucky she'll be able to come up with some sort of alibi for him," she added, then sniggered.

"Ugh," Apollo said, "whatever. Clay didn't kill anyone… oh, and did you actually _find_ anything yet? I spent an entire hour folding those stupid towels."

Ema frowned at him, then handed him another evidence bag. He squinted at it. "Zolpidem," the bottle read. "What is this?" Apollo said.

"It's a prescription soporific," Ema explained, "I found it in here." She slid open one of the bathroom drawers, then closed it.

Apollo shook his head. "Neither of us have insomnia."

"That doesn't mean it's not Terran's," Ema said, "We'll just have to see what the fingerprints have to say about it," and then she snatched it back from Apollo.

_Clay usually wears gloves, though_, Apollo thought, exasperated.

"What are you giving me that look for?" demanded Ema. Apollo shrugged.

"How long until you get an autopsy report?" he asked.

Ema frowned at him. "You know I'm not even sure we're supposed to be giving those to the defense."

"Doesn't that depend on who's in charge of the investigation?" Apollo said, "I heard that some prosecutors don't want the defense to have any information, while others will actually work with them…"

"I know, I know," Ema said, irritated, "but it's only been like an hour since the crime was reported in the first place. Obviously no one's been assigned yet."

"It's a little late to say 'better safe than sorry,'" Apollo said, holding his notebook up pointedly.

Ema rolled her eyes. "Well, I'm guessing that by the time the autopsy report comes in, a prosecutor will have been assigned. We'll see then."

"Oh, come on," Apollo said, "cut me some slack. Clay's my best friend."

"If you're so sure he didn't kill anyone, then you should have no problem waiting for the autopsy report to come up in court." She started munching on her Snackoos. "If you're really right and he's really innocent, then you'll be able to come up with some way to prove it no matter what happens, right?"

Apollo scowled at her. She knew full well that this was only his third case.

"By the way," Ema said, "nice boxers." Apollo coughed and turned away angrily, his face growing hot. _I'm never going to live that down, am I?_

* * *

_June 28, 7:28 AM, People Park_

Apollo had spent the last three hours following Ema around. After all, visiting hours at the detention center didn't start for another hour and a half. He wanted to have at least a solid case of his own before going and finding out from Clay how, exactly, the victim had ended up with what Ema kept calling a "dying message of some sort" directed at him, and where the Zolpidem came from. However, so far the evidence hadn't been exactly forthcoming. The real killer was either meticulous or lucky.

Ema and Apollo's theorizing was interrupted by the rumble of the motorcycle over by the park entrance. "The prosecutor must be here," Ema grumbled, as Apollo turned to look. Both Ema and Apollo were surprised to see, instead of Klavier Gavin dismounting and strutting over, Trucy Wright sliding off the back of the motorcycle.

"Thanks for the ride, Klavier!" Trucy said cheerfully, tipping her hat.

"No problem, Fräulein Wright," Klavier said, then added, "Achtung, baby!" and sped off. Trucy headed towards the crime scene.

"Oh, great," Ema growled, "instead of the glimmerous-" _Glamorous_, Apollo corrected in his head, "-fop I get to report to the showgirl a decade younger than me." She began vehemently munching on Snackoos as Trucy came into earshot of Ema's would-be under-the-breath comments.

"Hi, Polly, hi, Ema," Trucy said, bouncing.

"I take it you're the prosecutor for this case," Apollo said.

"I take it you're the defense attorney," Trucy replied, "don't worry, I'll let Ema share the details of the investigation with you… although it looks like she's doing that already." Ema's only response was to eat her Snackoos faster and look away. "Anyway," Trucy continued, "I have the autopsy report. What do you make of this, Ema?" She handed a manilla folder to her.

Apollo looked up over Ema's shoulder at it. Not much that they hadn't already suspected - the victim had been positively ID'd as Bernie Dejeu, age 23; cause of death: drowning, also some minute scraping injuries all over his body; estimated time of death: 11:00-11:15 PM, according to Dejeu's waterlogged watch, which had stopped at 11:14, although it was unsure how long it had actually lasted, and if the watch was ignored it could be anywhere from 10:00 PM to 3:00 AM; toxicology had revealed traces of sedatives in his bloodstream.

"I think it's safe to assume that the anonymous tipper saw the moment of the murder," Ema said, "as in, Dejeu was drugged and then dumped into the river, where he drowned."

Apollo nodded. That seemed right, well, except for the fact that there was no way the witness actually saw _Clay_. "I still say an anonymous tip is really suspicious."

"Well, if they are suspicious, they'll come up for a different reason," Trucy said, "we can't just trace a call to the anonymous tip hotline." She shrugged. "Oh, by the way, Ema, I meant to ask - did you remember to check the security footage?"

"Oh," Ema said, clapping a hand to her face, "I completely forgot they had those installed." She ran off.

"Don't worry about it, just check the footage!" Trucy called after her.

"Security footage?" Apollo said, raising an eyebrow.

Trucy nodded, smiling. "They had some cameras installed after the incident here two weeks ago."

"Ah," Apollo said, "there sure have been a lot of murders in our area lately…. It kind of makes me worry about our safety - especially Mr. Wright's. Doesn't he keep disappearing for days on end?"

"That's normal," Trucy replied, "he's working on a secret mission." Apollo resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Besides," Trucy continued, "a couple of high-profile murders happen around here every year."

"It's not a very nice end of town, is it?" Apollo admitted.

"Yeah," Trucy said, crossing her arms and looking off into the distance, "so two in one month isn't that weird, I think. I mean, it's not like I'm scared or anything." Was it just Apollo, or had his bracelet tightened when she said that? He ignored it. After all, Trucy _was_ only fifteen, German-style law studies or not.

"The power of science prevails again!" Ema shouted suddenly after fifteen minutes of both Trucy and Apollo aimlessly poking around the park, running back towards them, video cassette tape in her hand.

"I don't know if I'd call putting some security footage on an old VHS 'science'," Apollo said. Ema threw a Snackoo at him.

"Shut your mouth," Ema said smugly, "just wait until you see what's on the footage." Trucy pulled a relatively portable video player out of her magic panties, and Ema gleefully shoved the tape in. All three of them leaned in to watch the segment of footage that Ema had recorded.

The timestamp read 10:10 PM when Clay walked into the park. _That's not long after he left last night_, Apollo thought. Clay's head was turning from side to side, like he was looking for something. Had he mentioned why he went to the park last night? Apollo couldn't even remember him mentioning that he was going to park specifically, just "out". Ema fast-forwarded through almost three hours of empty area-immediately-inside-the-park until 1:03 AM, when Clay, looking slightly disheveled, exited the park. _And that's not long before he came home last night, or rather this morning, I guess,_ Apollo thought.

"Looks like he was at the crime scene at the time of the crime," Trucy observed. Apollo groaned internally.

"And it looks like he must have asked the victim to meet him there," Ema said, chewing on her Snackoos triumphantly, "since he's not exactly dragging a body in the clip."

"Hold it!" Apollo said, "is this _all _the footage you got?"

"Y-Yeah," Ema said, deflating slightly.

"So there wasn't any actual footage of the victim entering the park?" Trucy said.

"No," Ema said sullenly, "he must have entered through one of the camera's blind spots." She pulled out a map of the park, and circled a couple sections of fence, and then put an "X" over one of the circled segments. "The cameras are only placed at the actual entrances to the park, and there are none in the park itself, so anyone could get in without being seen if they climbed over the fence in any of these places." She pointed the "X". "The fence here is broken, too, so you wouldn't even have to climb."

"I see," Trucy said, putting a finger to the side of her mouth, "so I guess we have to figure out why the victim went out of his way to not be seen by the cameras."

"Maybe Dejeu was the one who summoned Clay to the park," Apollo said.

"Why would he do that?" Trucy said, "he was the one who was murdered, not Clay."

Apollo shrugged. He was sure he was onto something, though. He checked his watch. Visiting hours would start soon.

* * *

_June 28, 9:00 AM, Detention Center_

"There you are!" Clay shouted as soon as Apollo walked in.

"They only just let me in," Apollo pointed out.

"Whatever," Clay said, "you got that case-breaking evidence yet, dude?"

"Um, about that," Apollo said, sitting down, "there's… not much evidence in general."

Clay's omnipresent grin faltered a bit. "I'm sure something will come up," he said, his voice still light, "I mean, if anyone can prove me not guilty, it's you!"

Apollo smiled at him in spite of himself. "Right," he said, "oh, and I had some questions for you. Have they told you who the victim is yet?"

"No," Clay said, "I haven't even really been questioned. I think they kinda forgot about me once they threw me in the cell. I mean, it was really early when they arrested me, so I guess it's not a surprise that the only one who really talked to me was your little sister."

Apollo frowned at him. "Little sister?"

"Yeah," Clay said cheerfully, "that really young prosecutor, Trucy Wright. She looks just like you, man."

"We're not related."

"She still looks just like you."

Apollo rolled his eyes. "_Anyway_, the victim was that one friend of Badriyyah's, you know, Dejeu."

Clay's smile faltered again. "Oh, him."

"You didn't know him all that well, did you?" Apollo eyed him suspiciously.

"Don't look at me like that," Clay protested, "I only really knew him through Badri. I wouldn't've had any reason to kill him whatsoever!"

Uh-oh. Apollo's bracelet was reacting. "Uh, Clay…"

Clay looked at him, his expression a mixture of betrayed and insulted. "Come on, dude," he said, "whatever your magic bracelet power says, _I didn't kill him!_"

"I know," Apollo said, but it was a relief nonetheless when his bracelet loosened. "Look, Clay, this will be so much easier if you'd just tell me everything."

"Yeah, yeah," Clay said, rubbing his eye with the back of one fist, "but it's really personal, dude. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the case, anyway."

_Things like that usually do_, Apollo thought, but decided not to press Clay. For now, at least. "Fine. Okay, tell me why you were in the park last night."

Clay looked up again, a little startled. "How did you-"

"You were caught on the security cameras."

"There are security cameras?"

"They're new," Apollo said, shrugging. "Anyway, you were in the park for nearly three hours. Why is that?"

"N-No reason," Clay said, plastering a fake smile on. Apollo's bracelet tightened, and he leaned his forehead against the glass, sighing. "Sorry, man. But it doesn't really matter, right?"

"Well, I certainly _hope_ not," growled Apollo. It was almost like he was _trying_ to make himself as suspicious as possible. "Well, as long as you were there, did you happen to see Dejeu at any point? Please tell me," he added.

"Nah," Clay said, "I never saw him at all that night." Apollo's bracelet didn't react. "Of course, I kinda fell asleep not long after I got to the park. I left when I woke up." So, as long as Clay didn't want to talk about it, it was still possible that Dejeu was the one who called him to the park in the first place. Apollo just wished he had a better alibi than "I was napping."

"Right then," Apollo said, pressing on, "any idea why Dejeu had your Luna 2 model in his pocket?"

Clay looked at him, aghast. "_He's_ the one who had my Luna 2 model?"

"…yes?"

"It's been missing for months! I haven't seen it since I showed it to Badri - I thought I misplaced it."

"Wait," Apollo said, "if you took it to Badriyyah… how did it end up with Dejeu?"

"I have no idea," Clay said cheerfully, and Apollo's bracelet tightened _again_. Apollo groaned in frustration. "Um… sorry."

"I'll live," Apollo muttered. _You might not._ "Anything you can tell me about the night of the crime?"

"Not really," Clay replied, shrugging.

"You know they're looking into Badriyyah as some sort of witness, right?"

"They are? That's, uh… not good," Clay said, "I don't want my girlfriend getting arrested for perjury."

Apollo sat up. "Wait, why do you think she'll get arrested for perjury?"

"Come on, dude, you know how she is."

"Not really."

Clay sighed. "Look, I know I have a really bad alibi. So I'm kind of worried that once Badri finds that out, she'll lie and say I was with her, or something. You know, trying to protect me."

"I… see," said Apollo, but his bracelet was picking up _something_ - somehow he felt as though this wasn't another case of Clay intentionally hiding something from him. This was something deeper. Did Clay not trust his girlfriend…?

"Actually," Clay said, tilting his head, "can you go check up on Badri for me?"

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, man, she's probably pretty worried about me. Just assure her that I got the greatest defense attorney in explored space, okay?" Clay said.

_Flattery will get you everywhere_, Apollo thought. "Fine," he said, getting up. "I'll tell her you said hi."

"Thanks, bro."

* * *

_June 28, 10:15 AM, Run Down Inn, Room #102_

Apollo, having never been to Badriyyah Zuvan's house before, was surprised to find that it was an extremely cheap, air-conditioning-less, one room flat filled with clutter and second-hand furniture. Granted, Badriyyah wasn't exactly what Apollo would have called, say, well-dressed, but he had always thought that was because she was more academically-minded than fashion-minded.

"Sorry it's a mess, I would have cleaned up a little if it hadn't been so… hectic," Badriyyah said. Apollo nodded, not meeting her eye. She was a beautiful, broad-shouldered-wide-hipped woman, with long, flowing black hair in a wide, messy plait reaching halfway down her back and smooth, clear dark skin. Her eyes were a deep, dark purply-blue, like the night sky if it didn't have any stars. Quite frankly, Apollo didn't feel like he was _welcome_ to look at her. He wondered how in the world Clay got himself a girlfriend like that.

"Are you going to be a witness in tomorrow's trial?" Apollo asked her, opting to glance around the room instead. He knew Badriyyah was interested in space and he was pretty sure she was currently majoring in aerospace engineering, but he was surprised by the sheer amount of models she had. In fact, it seemed that aside from the bare essentials and some books, all she had were models… except for Clay's GYAXA jacket, which was draped over a beat-up looking chair at the equally beat-up looking desk. _Clay must have left it here the other day_, Apollo thought. He hadn't seen Clay wear it in a while.

"Yeah," Badriyyah said, slightly irritably, "I can't _believe_ they expect me to testify against my own boyfriend."

"You know, he's worried that you might lie to protect him and get arrested for perjury."

She shrugged. "Like those courts ever write anyone up on perjury." Okay, that was true. "But he can rest easy. I wasn't planning on it." She sighed. "I didn't expect it to come to this, though."

"What exactly will you be testifying about?" Apollo said, "It's not like you'd be there to establish an alibi for him or anything."

"I'm not at liberty to say," Badriyyah said, playing with a lock of hair, "that little prosecutor girl said those orders came from the top, by the way. She said to tell you she was 'totally planning on letting Polly get the chance to question you, but Uncle Edgeworth said he'd ground me if I kept doing that.'"

Apollo sighed. Seemed he'd been doing that a lot today. "Well, hopefully it's not something too damaging to Clay's case."

"That… doesn't seem likely," Badriyyah said, putting her hand over her mouth, "let's just say I'm going to be a highly valuable witness for the prosecution."

"Seriously?"

Badriyyah shrugged. "Tell Clay I'm sorry, and I don't think he meant it-" Apollo's bracelet vibrated slightly. "-but if I'm going to be called to court, well, I'm going to tell the truth. Every citizen has to do their duty, otherwise nothing would get off the ground, you know?"

"Um… yeah," Apollo said.

"But on the plus side," Badriyyah said, "Clay always speaks so highly of you, he says you're a better lawyer than a Ferengi."

_Thanks, Clay_, Apollo thought sarcastically, _but I guess Ferengi _would_ make pretty good lawyers_. "So you're thinking I'll be able to find some way around your testimony?" Apollo said.

"If Clay's innocent, then I'm sure you'll find a way," she said, and smiled, but to Apollo the smile seemed a little condescending. _Trouble in paradise_, Apollo thought. Did either of these people actually trust each other?

* * *

_June 28, 12:29 PM, Prosecutorial Office_

Trucy had to admit, she was a little excited about the prospect of going up in court against Apollo. She was a little less excited about the fact that she couldn't help out Apollo with his investigation anymore. Edgeworth had caught wind of it and accused her of "further blurring the lines between defense and prosecution," which Phoenix said sounded more like a compliment than anything else when Trucy told him about it, and he also called Edgeworth a hypocrite.

The point was, she had to tell her star witness, Badriyyah Zuvan, not to tell anything to Apollo, and had to tell Ema not to reveal the existence of the other witnesses to him either. Trucy sincerely doubted that he would find them on his own - she had found them after he'd already left for the detention center, and he probably wouldn't know them anyway. Two friends of the victim's (admittedly, one of them was only going to be needed if Zuvan folded under cross-examination) and a random bystander whom Trucy suspected may have been the source of the anonymous tip.

Speaking of the anonymous tip, Trucy listened to recording and concluded that the person on the other end of the line was disguising their voice. She had no idea how soon the voice analysis would be done, or if it would even yield any remotely helpful results. And speaking of results, where was the fingerprint test on the Zolpidem?

Ema casually walked into her cluttered yet colorful office, munching on Snackoos. "So," she said somewhat awkwardly, "apparently there was some sort of huge mix-up in the forensics department."

"Is that why the fingerprinting is taking so long?" Trucy asked.

"Yeah," Ema said, "and the voice analysis is going to take a while, too."

Trucy sighed. "I hope we don't need that in court."

"Well," Ema said, "if that Dromeda guy really was the tipper, then it shouldn't matter."

"Right," Trucy said. They had already looked into Hans Dromeda's background and found absolutely no connection with Bernie Dejeu, or with Clay Terran, or with any of the other witnesses, so there was no reason to lie about what he saw in the park that night. Also, Trucy was pretty sure that Dromeda was actually crazy enough to tail someone "dangerous" back to his apartment just so he could have a name to give the police. That might also explain the voice-changer. "What I can't figure out is why the tipper thought that Terran was dangerous."

"Well," Ema said, crossing her arms and tilting her head, "Terran's, what, five-foot-eight? And he's an astronaut… meanwhile, Dromeda can't be taller than five-one."

"He's shorter than Polly," Trucy giggled.

"And scrawny, too," Ema added, "at least Apollo has broad shoulders."

"So, in short," Trucy said, punintentionally, "Terran could probably beat up Dromeda."

"…yeah," Ema said, "although I probably wouldn't have phrased it that way."

"Anyway," Trucy said, spinning in her chair, "unless something else comes up, all we really have to do is wait for the forensics thing to be resolved."

"I'll go help with that," Ema volunteered, adjusting her glasses. She ran off.

_That will probably only make things worse_, Trucy thought. Oh well. With some of the evidence still a little up in the air, victory was less than certain. However, between her and Apollo, she was sure they could find the truth.

* * *

**A/N: Short chapter, I know. A lot more happens in the next one, though, so look forward to it!**

**Also, I hope the personality I gave Clay isn't too reminiscent of Larry. I'm just kind of using the one that Sith used, haha. I like consistency.**


	3. Day 2

**I acknowledge that I dropped the ball on Trucy not calling Edgeworth "Uncle Edgey". Gosh, that would have been so cute. Too late to change it though...**

* * *

_June 29, 9:48 AM, District Court, Defendant Lobby #9_

"So, how's this gonna go, dude?"

Apollo glared at Clay. Investigation had ground to a halt before noon the day before, and no matter how much he reviewed the evidence he _had_ gathered, Apollo wasn't even sure if he'd be able to drag the trial out in order to buy him enough time to find some real evidence. And as a consequence to this, he'd barely slept the night before.

"…that bad, huh?" Clay said, though he was still smiling.

"I'm… I'm sure I'll figure out something," Apollo groaned, "there's still _some_ doubt, I think. I hope."

"Well, there is one thing you can do now," Clay said, clapping him on the back, "come on, Apollo. I'll go first." He took a deep breath. "I'm Clay Terran and I'm fine!"

Apollo sighed. Clay was right. "Okay. I'm Apollo Justice and I'm fine!" he yelled.

"That's the spirit!" Clay said, "Again! _I'm Clay Terran I'm fine!_"

"_I'm Apollo Justice and I'm fine!_"

"One more time!"

"I'M APOLLO JUSTICE AND I'M-" Ema walked in. _Mortally embarrassed_, Apollo finished in his head.

"Hey, Detective Skye!" Clay said cheerfully.

"…you two are weird," Ema said.

"Duly noted," Apollo said, covering his eyes with one hand, "Did you need something, Ema?"

"Nah," Ema said, playing with her hair, "I just came to wish you luck." She crossed her arms, smiling smugly, "You're gonna need it."

"Thanks, Ema," Apollo said, rolling his eyes. She couldn't bring him down, not after his Chords of Steel exercises.

"You're welcome."

"You were the detective in charge of the case, right?" Clay said, "If I remember correctly, you were there when they arrested me."

"Yep," Ema said, taking out her Snackoos, "although I guess in retrospect we could have waited until you actually woke up. I'm pretty sure you're not as dangerous as the anonymous tipper lead us to believe."

"No hard feelings," Clay said, grinning, "even if launch is only eighteen months away… Director Cosmos assured me that four days off wouldn't really make a difference."

"Four days, huh?" Ema said, looking disinterested.

"Yeah!" Clay said, apparently not catching said disinterest, "I mean, trials only run up to three days, right? And Apollo's totally gonna get me off the hook! Heck, I'll probably be a free man _today_!"

"Woah, woah, woah," Apollo cut in, "Clay, my strategy today is going to be _buying more time_ so I can investigate some more after court is adjourned!"

"Oh," Clay said, completely unfazed, "well, still, I'll be a free man tomorrow!"

Apollo groaned inwardly. At least Clay had faith in him.

"Trial is about to begin," the guard announced.

"Anyway, good luck in there," Ema said, and she sounded relatively sincere.

"Thanks, Detective Skye!" Clay yelled, giving her two thumbs up as he and Apollo went into the courtroom. _She actually thinks you killed Dejeu_, Apollo wanted to point out, but decided against it.

* * *

_June 29, 10:00 AM, District Court, Courtroom #9_

"Court is now in session for the trial of Mr. Clay Terran."

"The prosecution is ready, your Honor," Trucy said, looking for all the world like there was supposed to be a spotlight on her.

"The defense is ready, your Honor," Apollo said. He glanced at the defendant's seat; Clay was looking fairly unconcerned and appeared to be preoccupying himself with looking around the courtroom, fascinated. _At least _he's_ fine_, Apollo thought.

"Very well," the Judge said, "Miss Wright. Your opening statement, please."

"Yes, your Honor," Trucy said, and she cleared her throat theatrically. "Two nights ago, or rather, in the early hours of yesterday morning, the police received an anonymous tip from someone who claimed to have seen the defendant dump a body in the river at People Park. They also claimed that Mr. Terran was a dangerous man. Anyway, when the river was dredged, a body was found: that of one Mr. Bernie Dejeu, the ex-boyfriend of the woman Mr. Terran is currently dating." She submitted the autopsy report, identical to the one Apollo already had, and a transcript of the anonymous tip to the court. Apollo noticed that the transcript mentioned the use of a voice-changer of some sort. _That's… awfully suspicious_, Apollo thought, and made a mental note to bring it up at the first possible opportunity.

"I see," said the Judge, "very well. You may call your first witness."

"The prosecution calls the detective in charge of the case, Ema Skye, to the stand," Trucy said, then added, "she was also one of the officers who arrested Mr. Terran."

Ema took the stand.

"Witness, name and occupation, please," Trucy said.

Ema cleared her throat. "Ema Skye. I'm a detective for the police department," she said, looking aloof.

Trucy grinned. "Detective Skye, please tell the court the results of your initial investigation of Mr. Terran's apartment."

"Well," Ema said, "the defendant was in his apartment, sleeping, when we arrested him. After he was arrested, I personally searched his belongings - I found a bottle of Zolpidem, a prescription soporific, in his bathroom drawer, and there was a set of clear fingerprints belonging to Terran on them." She adjusted her glasses, then added with a significant look at Apollo, "While I was there, I was able to confirm that the model found in the victim's pocket did in fact belong to the defendant."

"Excuse me," said the Judge, "but what exactly do you mean by a 'superiffic'?"

"A soporific is a drug used to induce sleeping, your Honor," Trucy said cheerfully.

"We did check Terran's medical records, and while he isn't currently on any sort of medication, there are numerous ways that you could get Zolpidem without a prescription," Ema said.

"Very well," said the Judge, "the defense may begin its cross-examination."

Apollo nodded and put a finger to his forehead, thinking. "Detective Skye," he said, "what exactly is the nature of the fingerprints on the bottle of Zolpidem?"

Ema played with her hair, frowning. "There's a single set, slightly smudged but still identifiable." Trucy helpfully updated the Zolpidem bottle in the court record.

Apollo looked at the fingerprints. There was something strange about them, something he might be able to use… "Objection!" he thundered, "the fingerprints are upside-down, which clearly indicates that they may have been planted!"

"Objection!" Trucy yelled back, although she didn't sound very loud right after Apollo's Chords of Steel, "Mr. Justice. Is it true that Mr. Terran usually wears gloves?"

"Uh… yes," Apollo said warily.

"Well, that explains everything," Trucy said, leaning over the bench and shaking her finger at him, "including why the prints are upside-down." She stood up straight and played with the brim of her top hat. "You see… Mr. Terran has only handled the bottle once without gloves. This obviously happened when the bottle fell off of the bathroom counter, and Mr. Terran caught it before it hit the floor!"

The crowd burst into discussion. "The bathroom counter, huh…" Apollo said, sweating, as the Judge banged his gavel.

"Yep!" Trucy said cheerfully, "that's why the prints are upside-down! He wasn't handling the bottle as one normally would if you were, say, getting some pills out so you could drug someone's drink." She put a finger to her mouth thoughtfully. "After all, if he had left the prints at the time of the _murder_, that would have been really dumb of him, so this must have happened before. That's why the prints are smudged."

_That was probably a trap_, Apollo thought sourly, _and I walked right into it. Who the heck _taught_ this girl?!_

"Anyway," Trucy said, "if the defense has no further objections, I'd like to call up the next witness, your Honor."

"Well, Mr. Justice?" the Judge said.

"Wait," Apollo said, pressing his finger to his forehead, "give me a minute." _Did_ he have any other objections? He didn't want to just let this opportunity to throw some doubt on the evidence pass him by… but he couldn't really think of anything else to bring up. Maybe ask for a theory on how the Luna 2 model had ended up in Dejeu's pocket in the first place? No, it was obvious what Trucy or Ema would say.

"What's the matter, Polly?" Trucy said, "Forgot to get a co-counsel?"

"Shut up," Apollo grumbled, "I don't need a co-counsel." Was she trying to break his concentration on purpose? Actually, she probably was.

"There's nothing wrong with co-counsels," Trucy declared, "look, I have one." There was a _click_ and Mr. Hat appeared next to her to some appreciative oohs and ahhs from the gallery (and the Judge).

"Very funny," Apollo said, then sighed. "Your Honor, the defense has no objections… for now."

"Very well," said the Judge, as Trucy put Mr. Hat back, "Miss Wright, you may call your next witness."

"The prosecution calls Badriyyah Zuvan to the stand!"

Apollo took a deep breath as Badriyyah, long legs, strong jaw, and all, walked up to the witness stand. He wondered vaguely how many other witnesses Trucy had been able to find and if Badriyyah was first up only because Apollo already knew that she was to testify today. For some reason the song "Jesse's Girl" started playing in his head.

"Witness, name and occupation, please," Trucy said, bouncing.

"My name is Badriyyah Zuvan," the witness said, "and I'm currently a student at Ivy University. I study aerospace engineering…" she paused and glanced around the courtroom, putting a hand over her mouth and holding her other arm tightly just underneath her… chest. The thought _Lucky Clay_ occurred to Apollo.

"Nervous about being in court, Ms. Zuvan?" Trucy asked.

"Somewhat," Badriyyah replied.

"Don't be, you'll do great," Trucy said, tipping her hat, "so, witness, please tell us your relationship with the defendant, and with the victim."

Badriyyah nodded, but didn't move other than that. "Clay and I have been dating since last May," she said, "but before that, I dated Bernie - the victim, that is - although I've tried to stay _out_ of touch with him." Apollo's bracelet vibrated, and he wondered if it responded to just general nervousness.

Trucy nodded. "Now, please tell us about the relationship between the defendant and the victim."

"I left Bernie for Clay," Badriyyah began, "and he was, understandably, bitter about it, probably because he was utterly unable to get over me. He was constantly calling and calling, harassing me, begging me to get back with him. No matter how many times I tried to tell him I was happy with Clay, he wouldn't listen… so I eventually told Clay about it, about four months ago. I told him how I was starting to get a little scared of Bernie. Clay promised me he would take care of it, and for a while, Bernie stopped calling, but in the past two weeks or so it started back up again. Once again Clay said he'd make sure that Bernie didn't harass me anymore, but… I didn't think it would come to this."

Much to Apollo's alarm, his bracelet had been contracting like mad almost the entire testimony. And… Apollo's heart seemed to stop.

He couldn't find her tic.

He supposed that it must be something do with her mouth, or perhaps her hands, considering he was at the moment unable to really see either of them, but without specifics, he hadn't the slightest idea what she was lying about.

"The defense may begin its cross-examination," the Judge said as though nothing were wrong.

Apollo nodded shakily, almost forcing himself to take his hand off of his forearm. Trucy's piercing stare wasn't helping him any - she probably realized, too, that Badriyyah was lying _somewhere_, but if Apollo's bracelet couldn't help them, they were both equally in the dark. "Witness," Apollo said finally, "could you describe to the court the nature of Mr. Terran's promises to 'take care of' Mr. Dejeu?"

"Well," Badriyyah said, her "nervous" act completely intact, "I can't remember the exact wording, but I remember thinking at the time that he sounded like a 'macho' kid trying to protect his little lady-friend from the big, bad schoolyard bully. Honestly, I thought it was kind of cute." She giggled a bit, and Apollo had never really realized before how _acerbic _her laugh sounded.

"I… I see," said Apollo, "well, can you tell us if you'd noticed any changes in his behavior in the last two weeks?"

"Yes," Badriyyah said immediately, "not at all like his usual self. He's been moody, evasive, paranoid-"

"Hold it!" Apollo yelled, "Ms. Zuvan. Surely you're aware that Mr. Terran and I are roommates?"

"Yes?" Badriyyah said.

"Then I'd like you to explain to me how _I_ didn't notice any of this strange behavior you just described."

Badriyyah's brow furrowed slightly - she was probably frowning. "Mr. Justice," she said coldly, "no offense intended to you, but I am Clay's _girlfriend_ while you are only his _roommate_. Of _course_ I'd be more likely to notice-"

"Mr. Terran and I have been best friends for almost a decade!" Apollo shouted, "I think I know him better than you-"

"Objection!" Trucy interrupted, "Mr. Justice, the defense is not allowed to be a character witness for their own client!"

"Objection sustained," the Judge said, a little too fast for Apollo's liking, "Mr. Justice. Do you have any _substantial_ objections that you can back up with evidence?"

_Not good…_ Apollo thought. "N-No, your Honor," he said, frustrated beyond belief, and glanced at Clay. Clay's expression looked like Sol Starbuck himself had just told him that the moon landing was faked.

"I didn't think so. The current witness is dismissed," the Judge said, banging his gavel. "Miss Wright, you may call-"

"Actually, your Honor, I'd like to request a recess before calling the next witness," Trucy said.

"Do you still need to prepare him?"

"Something like that." Trucy's gaze was drilling into Apollo again.

"Very well then. I declare a thirty minute recess." Down the gavel swung.

* * *

_June 29, 11:01 AM, District Court, Defendant's Lobby #9_

"What was up with Badriyyah?!" Apollo asked Clay as soon as court was out.

"I - I don't know, dude," Clay said, rubbing his eyes, "I didn't expect her to-"

"Clay. Seriously, tell me," Apollo said, grabbing Clay by the shoulders and shaking him, "what is going on between you two and Dejeu? I'm pretty sure Badriyyah's testimony was one giant lie, but why would she-"

"Polly!" Apollo was interrupted by Trucy poofing into defendant's lobby in a puff of brightly-colored smoke (almost giving Apollo a heart attack), angry in the comically cute way she always was. "What happened out there?!"

"What?" Clay said as Apollo let go of him. "Prosecutor Wright?"

"Why didn't you catch anything in Zuvan's testimony?" Trucy demanded, "She was so tense that whole time, even I could tell! How come you didn't do your bracelet thing and yell 'Gotcha!' at her and-"

"Trucy, calm down," Apollo said, holding his hands up, "let me explain."

"You'd better!"

"What's going on?" Clay said, ignored.

"I think it was the way she was standing, and had her hand over her mouth," Apollo explained, "but I couldn't find any of her tics. I could tell she was lying, but without being able to see what she was doing, that was all I knew! I still don't know _what_ she was lying about, so it wouldn't be much help-!"

"You could have said _something_," Trucy said, still pouting, "anything! Instead of just letting her stand up there and spout lies!"

"Don't talk about my girlfriend like that!" Clay protested.

"You're the one who called her as a witness in the first place," Apollo snapped, ignoring Clay, "aren't you supposed to go over the testimonies before you put them up there?"

"I did!" Trucy retorted, stomping her foot, "I did! I knew she was lying, but I can't do what you can do, so I thought, if I put her up on that stand, then _you_ could-"

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO ARGUING ABOUT?!" Clay yelled. Trucy and Apollo turned to him, slightly startled. "Seriously! I mean, for one thing, Prosecutor Wright, why are you so worried about Badri's testimony? Isn't it favorable for you?"

"T-The most important thing is to find the truth," Trucy said, finally calming down, "so we needed to weed through her lies."

"And - and how come you know about Apollo's magic bracelet powers?" Clay continued.

"She was the one who taught me about them in the first place," Apollo said sheepishly.

"And I have them, too," Trucy said, back to bouncing happily, "although I don't have a bracelet…"

Clay raised an eyebrow. "Are you _sure_ you're not related?" he asked.

"Okay, again, yes," Apollo replied, rolling his eyes, "on the grounds of _having younger siblings usually requires having a _mom."

"That is true," Clay said, cracking a grin.

Trucy sighed. "Well, I've still got some witnesses to go, and the next one I'm _sure_ is telling the truth." She played with the brim of her hat, frowning. "Hopefully you'll be able to find something, somewhere that you could use to break Zuvan - we can't have a proper verdict while she's still lying for some reason. Anyway, I'd better go," she said, then vanished.

"…I don't think I like the way you guys keep talking about my girlfriend, dude," Clay said, scratching his cheek.

"Yeah, well, like it or not, the fact that she's lying to get you implicated for murder is pretty suspicious," Apollo said bitterly, "so right now I'm thinking she's the main suspect for being the real killer."

"Badri would never-!" Clay began, but Apollo held a hand up.

"Then you need to tell me what she's up to," he said, "I don't want to think she did it any more than you do. So right now, Clay, you need to tell me the truth about what happened between you and her and Dejeu. The whole truth."

Clay gave him a forlorn look, then sighed. "I knew I was gonna have to tell you sooner or later, man… okay, so, it all started-"

"Court will resume shortly!" the guard informed them.

"Arrrrrrrrrrgh!"

* * *

_June 28, 11:25, District Court, Courtroom #9_

"Court is now back in session for the trial of Mr. Clay Terran," the Judge said, banging his gavel, "Miss Wright, are you ready to call your next witness?"

"Yes, your Honor," Trucy said without a trace of her earlier fury, "but before that, I'd like to explain something to the defense."

"Yes?" Apollo said. He remembered Trucy's warning that this witness was telling the truth.

"We're pretty sure that this is the guy who left the anonymous tip," Trucy said, "but due to the nature of the hotline, we can't confirm this. But I'd like you to keep in mind that the witness may be somewhat… frightened of the defendant and therefore might not feel very comfortable being in the courtroom."

"So you want me to go easy on him?" Apollo said.

"Yep," Trucy said. Apollo nodded. "Alright, your Honor," Trucy continued, "the prosecution calls Hans Dromeda to the stand!"

A short, skinny greaser, complete with pompadour and leather jacket, took the stand.

"Witness, name and occupation, please," Trucy said.

"Name's Dromeda. Hans Dromeda," the greaser said, snapping out his switch-comb and running it through his pompadour, "don't you go forgettin' it, dollface." Apollo wondered if Wright was in the gallery. "As for my occupation," Dromeda continued, "I guess you could call me… one hip cat."

"He's unemployed," Trucy said cheerfully.

"You could also call me that," Dromeda said without missing a beat.

"Please tell the court what you saw the night of the 27th," Trucy said, "or rather, the morning of the 28th."

"Sure thing, baby," Dromeda said, back to combing his pompadour. _He doesn't look remotely uncomfortable_, Apollo thought, exasperated. "Lessee… the morning of the 28th… 'course," Dromeda said, "I was in People Park for a little stargazin', see, when alluva sudden I heard this commotion comin' towards me." He pointed his comb at Clay. "Now, I'm not one much for conflict, so I hurried myself over to the bushes, where I hid and watched what was unfoldin'. And what was unfoldin' was that bull there cartin' something to the river." He went back to running his comb through his pompadour. "And that something looked _suspiciously_ like a corpse… so after that bull dumped the thing in the water and skedaddled, I ran for it. Didn't wanna get involved, see, but the little lady here still found me."

The gallery broke out in conversation. "Order!" the Judge commanded, banging his gavel. "Mr. Justice. Your cross-examination, please."

Apollo nodded. "Witness," he said, "first off… where exactly were you in the park at the time you heard the 'commotion'?"

Dromeda frowned, sticking his comb to his lip. "Got a map?"

Apollo presented the map that Ema had previously marked up. "I was 'bout here," Dromeda said, indicating a space not far from the river.

"And how far exactly could you see from this point?"

"Not far," Dromeda said, "my night vision's awful. If he hadn't'a been makin' a huge racket, he coulda been right on me by the time I noticed."

Apollo banged his fists on the desk. "And yet," he said, "you still expect us to believe that you could see the defendant?"

"Hey, cool it," Dromeda said, sweating and playing with his comb. Flick, flick, flick. "There was a streetlamp _right there_. I couldn't see much outside'a its light, but the defendant passed right under it when he was cartin' the body."

"Oh," Apollo said, and pressed his finger to his forehead. "Witness," he said after considering his next angle for a moment, "you keep saying you saw someone 'carting' the body, while the scrapes mentioned in the autopsy report would seem to suggest that the victim was _dragged_. Why is this?"

"Easy," said Dromeda, back to attending to his pompadour, "the body wasn't bein' carried or dragged or anything. It was in a wagon. I s'pose the scrapes came from when the body was tumblin' around in that river."

"Miss Wright, was a wagon recovered anywhere in People Park?" Apollo asked. He didn't recall seeing one.

"No," Trucy replied, frowning slightly.

"Witness, did the person pulling the wagon push the wagon into the river along with the body?" Apollo said.

"I… don't think so. Coulda sworn I saw the defendant walkin' off with the wagon," Dromeda said, playing with his comb again. Flick flick flick. "I didn't think it made sense at the time… still doesn't, actually."

"You're right, it doesn't," Apollo said, crossing his arms, smiling smugly. Trucy raised her eyebrows at him. If Apollo presented the security footage now, it would be a huge point in Clay's favor… but Apollo still had some questions for Dromeda. "Witness," he said, making a mental note to bring up the security footage later, "can you describe to us the condition of the victim at the time?"

"Obviously, I didn't get a very good look at 'im," Dromeda said drily, "if you're askin' if he was already dead or just catchin' some Z's… I dunno."

"Right," Apollo said, pressing his finger to his forehead, "one last question. What makes you so sure that it was the defendant that you saw? Did you see his face?"

Dromeda began flicking his comb again, his pompadour begin to suffer from his sweat. "W-Well," he said, "no. But I knew it was him!"

"How did you know this?"

"I…" Dromeda said, "well, don't judge me for bein' a… a nerd, but I spend a lotta time hangin' 'round at the Cosmos Space Center. So I'd recognize most of the people who work there… I even recognize you, Apollo Justice," he added, "considerin' how much time you kill there. I… kinda picked up your name at some point."

"Oh," Apollo said, "so, you didn't see Mr. Terran's face… but you were able to identify him using other characteristics."

"That's right."

"What were these characteristics?"

"Black hair, sturdy build," Dromeda said, fixing his pompadour, "GYAXA jacket."

Apollo smirked. "I see," he said, "Miss Wright, did the search of the suspect's house yield this GYAXA jacket?"

"…no," Trucy said, "it didn't. However…" she trailed off, frowning. She was probably realizing that Clay wasn't wearing his GYAXA jacket in any of the security footage. Come to think of… Apollo glanced at the transcript of the anonymous tip. Clay's description didn't include a jacket, just black hair… and if Dromeda already knew who he was, why tail him to his apartment?

"Well, as his roommate, I can confirm that the jacket hasn't been in the apartment for several days now," Apollo continued, "witness! Are you _positive_ that it was the GYAXA jacket you saw?"

"Of course!" Dromeda said, riling up, "it use'ta be a dream of mine to work at the Cosmos Space Center! I know GYAXA when I see it!"

"In that case," Apollo yelled, "it was impossible for you to have seen Mr. Terran drowning Mr. Dejeu, because _Mr. Terran was not wearing his jacket that night!_"

Dromeda recoiled, accidentally flinging his comb into the air, but catching it neatly on its way down. Meanwhile, Trucy gasped while her cape fluttered a bit in shock. "O-Objection!" she yelled, fists up, "how do you know that Mr. Terran couldn't have put the jacket on _after_ entering the park and taken it off _before_ leaving it?"

"Why would he do that?!" Apollo yelled.

"Just a minute!" the Judge said, "Mr. Justice! Do you have any proof that Mr. Terran wasn't wearing his jacket?"

"Oh, right," Apollo said, "yes." He had gotten swept up in the excitement and had almost forgotten. "Please take a look at this, your Honor," he said, showing the security footage to the court, "as you can see, Mr. Terran is not wearing his GYAXA jacket when he enters or leaves the park, nor does he have a wagon with him at any point."

"Objection!" yelled Trucy, "all this proves is that Mr. Terran didn't have either of those things at 10:10 PM or 1:03 AM! Did you forget that there are ways in and out of the park that aren't seen by the security cameras?" she added, wagging her finger at Apollo, "which means he was free to move in and out of the park at will. It's possible that he specifically passed in front of those cameras at those particular times in order to establish an alibi of sorts."

"An alibi?" the Judge said, "It looks more to me that the defense has just proven that the defendant was at the crime scene at the time of the crime."

"…I meant about the jacket and wagon, your Honor, but that is also true," Trucy said, bouncing.

_Well, that backfired_, Apollo thought. But he couldn't give up now. "Witness!" he yelled, slamming on his desk, "one last question!"

"That's what you said last time," Dromeda grumbled.

"I'd like you to explain to the court why you did not call the police!" Apollo yelled, pointing.

"I…!" Dromeda said, "I…"

"Witness, did you…" Trucy said with a sudden look of trepidation, "Did you call the anonymous tip hotline?"

"No," Dromeda said, "I…" he looked down, "I wasn't able to call _anyone_. See, I sorta broke my cell last week… and none of the public phones I could find were underneath any streetlights. I couldn't see them."

Trucy recoiled again.

"As I thought," Apollo said, crossing his arms confidently, "especially considering the anonymous tipper never mentioned a GYAXA jacket _or_ a wagon. And the tipper claimed to not know who Mr. Terran was!" He pounded on his desk. "There was no way that Mr. Dromeda could have been the anonymous tipper!"

"So?" Trucy said.

"Also, the tipper disguised their voice!" Apollo said. The gallery broke into discussion again. _I probably should have mentioned that first_, Apollo reflected.

"Why would you call an anonymous tip hotline and disguise your voice?" the Judge said.

"I don't think this is a question of _why_, your Honor," Trucy said, finger to her mouth, "but rather of _who_."

"Who would do such a thing, then?" the Judge said.

"It's simple, your Honor!" Apollo yelled, "The real killer, in an attempt to frame Mr. Terran!"

The discussion in the gallery loudened and Judge began banging his gavel.

"Miss Wright," the Judge said once the gallery had quieted down again, "do you have a rebuttal to this?"

"I have more witnesses, actually," Trucy said, "but for the time being, I'd like to request that court be adjourned until tomorrow. After all," she said, tipping her hat, "a perfect investigation doesn't leave any unanswered questions… like the jacket, or the wagon."

_Come to think of it_, Apollo thought, _I'm sure I saw that jacket somewhere yesterday._ But where? He vaguely remembered being distracted at the time.

"Does the defense have any objections to this?" the Judge asked.

Apollo shook his head. "No, your Honor," he said.

"Very well," the Judge said, "I expect some answers from both of you tomorrow. Until then, this court is adjourned."

* * *

_June 28, 1:50 PM, Detention Center_

"That was a close one," Apollo said, sitting down heavily.

"You pulled it off, dude!" Clay said happily, "great job!"

"Just barely," Apollo pointed out, "if Trucy hadn't requested that court be adjourned, who knows what could have happened."

"I dunno, man," Clay said, grinning, "the thing with the jacket, and the wagon… there was _no way_ the Judge could hand down a verdict after you brought them up!" He gave Apollo a thumbs-up. "I can almost _taste_ freedom!"

"It all comes down to what investigation today reveals," Apollo said.

"So why don't you go investigate? It's not like I'm going anywhere."

"Because," Apollo said, "you need to tell me what's going on between you, Badriyyah, and Dejeu."

"Oh, right," Clay said, deflating, "yeah… but before that, can you promise me something, dude?"

"What?" Apollo said dubiously.

"I know Badri's really suspicious right now and that's only going to go deeper," Clay said, looking determined, "but promise me you won't suspect her of being the murderer. There's no way she could do something like that! And frame me, too!"

"Clay…" Apollo said, frowning.

"Apollo, she loves me!"

Apollo sighed. "Clay, calm down." He placed one hand against the glass. "Look, the truth isn't always pretty. I can't promise anything. If Badriyyah really is the murderer, then of course I'm going to suspect her."

"Apollo-!"

"But," Apollo added quickly, "I don't want to think she drowned Dejeu any more than you do. What she's doing is suspicious already, but there might be another explanation for it. So… I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt as much as I possibly can." He crossed his arms.

Clay was silent for a minute, then sighed, leaning on the little shelf table. "Fine," he said, "I… I'm fine. I'll tell you everything that happened between the three of us."

Apollo nodded the go-ahead.

"It all started before I started dating Badri. She was dating Dejeu when I met her… and she left him for me. Well," he said, rubbing his eye, "I suppose it'd be more accurate to say she _didn't_ leave him for me, because she never left him at all."

"…what?" Apollo said, shocked, "Badriyyah was dating you and Dejeu at the same time?!"

"Y-Yeah," Clay said, "although… publicly, she did end her relationship with Dejeu when she started dating me. I didn't know she was… well, cheating on me for a while. In fact," he added, "I'm pretty sure she still doesn't know that _I_ know."

"How come you never told me this?" Apollo asked, "And how come Badriyyah didn't know that you knew? Did you not confront her about it?"

"No!" Clay said, sitting up straight, "I'm pretty sure that she didn't leave Dejeu because he wouldn't let her! So, I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want to hurt her reputation, and I didn't confront her about it because I thought she would end the relationship on her own!"

"You just _let_ her keep secrets from you?" Apollo said, feeling a mix between exasperation and suspicion.

"…I also thought she would tell me on her own," Clay said, "when she was ready."

Apollo sighed deeply. Not that he had ever been in any sort of significant relationship before, but… Clay clearly knew _nothing_ about this. _Maybe he should stick to being in a relationship with space_, Apollo thought sarcastically. "So, basically," he said, "_everything_ in her testimony was a complete lie."

"Not necessarily," Clay said, scratching his cheek with one finger, "it may be true that Dejeu was harassing her… but yeah, dude, as far as she knew, I barely knew who Dejeu was. I've never even really talked to him before, let alone threaten him and force him to leave my girlfriend alone."

"So, Dejeu didn't know that you knew about his and Badriyyah's relationship?" Apollo said, putting a finger to his forehead. This could mean something.

"I'm pretty sure he didn't, yeah," Clay said, "so… that's the story. Badri was cheating on me with Dejeu, and the only one who knew this was me, and the only one who knew _I_ knew was also me."

"Right," Apollo said, "okay, one more thing," he added, thinking back to his conversation with Clay yesterday. "What were you doing in the park so late?"

"I - er…" Clay said, looking away.

"Come on," Apollo said, exasperated, "I know it has something to do with Badriyyah. Don't tell me… she called you there?"

Clay was silent for a moment, then nodded grimly. "I'm sure she had her reasons," he said quickly.

"Yeah, sure," Apollo said, eyeing Clay, "just tell me what happened."

Clay sighed. "She called me up out of the blue and told me to meet her at People Park at 10:00. She also told me she'd be a little late, so wait up for her. Well, I got there, and there was no one there. I waited for a bit, then figured I might as well take a nap. When I woke up I guess three hours later, she still wasn't there, so I just went home."

"I… I see," Apollo said, "did she tell you why she wanted to meet you?"

"No," Clay said, crossing his arms and looking down, "b-but just because she called me there doesn't necessarily mean she actually went to the park, right? And maybe it wasn't even Badri who called, just… the real killer… who had Badri's phone, and… sounded exactly like her…?"

Apollo stared at him for a long minute.

"You can't prove anything!" Clay suddenly snapped.

"Clay," Apollo said, "do you remember my case two weeks ago? Where the guy's girlfriend tried to pin a crime on him and he even tried to _confess_ to it, all because he was too infatuated with her to realize who she really was?"

"Y-Yeah," Clay said, sweating, "but dude, this is different…!"

Apollo shook his head. "I think it's pretty clear what's really going on here."

Clay looked at him defiantly for a moment, then deflated, rubbing - no, wiping his eyes. He was clearly holding back tears. "…yeah," he said, "yeah. It is."

"It was Badriyyah?"

"I don't see how it couldn't have been," Clay said, sniffling, "but… you can't prove anything."

"! Clay-" Apollo started. How far was he going to go for Badriyyah's sake?

Clay looked up at him with a new resolve. "No, I don't mean it like that," he said, "I mean you literally can't prove anything. No one will take my testimony seriously because I might be covering for myself, and it's not like my phone records calls or anything - if Badri's does, she would have already deleted the conversation where she asked me to come to that park. And all of the other evidence except for the jacket and the wagon points directly to me."

"Which means the jacket and the wagon are our only shot," Apollo said.

Clay nodded. "And… I did accidentally leave my jacket at Badri's house a few days ago, although I don't know where it is now. But even if you can prove that she had the jacket the night of the crime, isn't that just circumstantial?"

"…yes," Apollo said, pressing his finger to his forehead, "so that won't be much help. But the wagon…"

"That probably won't help any, either," Clay said, "Badri's smart. She wouldn't leave any evidence."

Apollo pausing, thinking. Wait a minute… "What if that's what she was doing?"

Clay cocked his head. "What do you mean, dude?"

"The reason why she didn't just dump the wagon in the river along with Dejeu," Apollo explained. "If she had done that, and the prosecution assumed that you had coincidentally found the wagon in the park, then it wouldn't have contradicted the security footage at all."

"Hmm," Clay said, scratching his cheek, "I don't think Badri would make that kind of mistake, though."

"And it'd be easier to just leave the wagon there, too," Apollo said, "which means she must have taken it with her on purpose."

"And the only reason why she would do that was if the wagon was really incriminating somehow?" Clay said. Apollo nodded. "But how could a wagon be incriminating?"

"I don't know yet," Apollo said, "I guess we'll find out when the wagon is found."

* * *

_June 28, 4:20 PM, Gatewater Apartments_

Nothing.

Ema had found nothing so far. No wagon, no jacket. And Trucy was here, too.

"I really thought that Dromeda was the anonymous tipper," she was saying.

"I guess Apollo does have a point about the voice-changer," Ema said, "it _is_ really suspicious."

"Yeah, but Dromeda seems like he would be little… you know, paranoid, I guess," Trucy said, "I thought he was just covering his tracks because he was scared of Terran, but now… hm."

"How are you planning on explaining that away?" Ema asked.

"I don't know yet," Trucy said cheerfully, "I guess I'll ask Aunt Franziska for advice. But still," she added, "I kind of feel sorry for Dromeda."

"How so?" Ema said, not really paying attention. She had already searched Terran's room again, which of course turned up nothing, as did her search of any empty rooms (even if it did seem a little bit unlikely that Terran could have, somehow, accessed them in the first place). So far her search of the apartment grounds was going the same way - and they were only _here_ because People Park and the area around it as far as the train station had been cleared, too.

"Well, he said that his dream used to be to work at the Cosmos Space Center," Trucy said, "I bet he wanted to be an astronaut. Imagine," she added, "him: a dandy guy in space." Ema frowned. Dromeda seemed more like a T-Bird than a dandy. "He could comb the galaxy like his pompadour!" If that was a reference to something, Ema didn't get it.

"…why would Terran leave with the wagon, though?" Ema said, playing with her hair, "I can see how he could've found that wagon in the park to begin with… but why would he go to the trouble of sneaking it out without being seen by the cameras?"

"My guess is that he planned around Polly," Trucy said, bouncing, "so he specifically did things that would look like they were actually the 'real killer' making mistakes. He knew Polly would be able to use them to establish reasonable doubt, at the very least."

"Are you sure he's that clever?" Ema asked.

"Who? Terran or Polly?"

"…both," Ema said, pulling out her Snackoos.

"Well, if we assume that Terran actually is that clever, then the only points that don't make sense are the anonymous tip…" Trucy began.

"What if Terran called in the tip himself?" Ema said, "If he planned around Apollo, then he clearly intended to stand trial. And we have to admit that the suspicious tip does kind of point towards the possibility of a different killer."

"Pretty smart," Trucy said, "which means… the only issue here, at least until we find the wagon and the jacket, is Zuvan's testimony."

"Really?" Ema said, "What was wrong with it?"

"She was lying," Trucy said, crossing her arms and frowning, "but I don't know why."

"Uh, sure…" Ema said. She knew that whenever Trucy or Apollo (or even Mr. Wright) randomly said that someone was lying, they were inevitably right. _How_ they knew, Ema had no idea. It didn't seem very scientific to her, anyway.

"I wonder what the wagon will turn up, though?" Trucy said, putting her finger to her chin, "Even if Terran snuck it out so that Polly could 'prove' that he didn't have it the night of the crime… why would he hide it? Why not leave it nearer to the park?"

"So you think he hid it because it was incriminating somehow?" Ema said.

Trucy shrugged. "I just think that it'd be a waste of time to do anything with it besides ditch it at the first opportunity. I mean, all it had to be was _not in the park_, right?"

"Maybe you should go interrogate Terran again," Ema suggested.

"I don't think he'll tell me anything directly," Trucy said, "It's not like I can prove that he was planning for Polly's involvement, anyway."

"Maybe you should bluff," Ema said. She actually wasn't being sarcastic - after all, it worked for Wright in the past.

"…Aunt Franziska told me that prosecutors don't bluff," Trucy said, bouncing.

"And Mr. Edgeworth keeps telling you that prosecutors don't pin their badges to their clothing," Ema said, "so I've noticed that you don't seem to listen to your prosecuting 'relatives'."

"Aunt Franziska's different," Trucy said, pouting, "I can get away with not listening to Uncle Edgeworth, but Aunt Franziska whips Daddy when I don't listen to her."

"…I see," Ema said. _Mr. Wright has some really weird friends_, she thought.

"But the most Uncle Edgeworth can do is yell at Daddy or ground me," Trucy continued, "except that me being grounded only applies if I'm at Uncle Edgeworth's house, since Daddy doesn't care if Uncle Edgeworth grounds me… which means that Uncle Edgeworth yells at Daddy."

"Right," Ema said. She really wondered about Trucy's home life sometimes. "That's nice. Let's find that wagon, shall we?"

"Have fun with that, Ema," Trucy said, adjusting her hat, "I actually have a show at the Wonder Bar that starts in 15 minutes, so…"

Ema shrugged, although she was irritated. "Well, it's not like you _need_ to be here."

"Okay," Trucy said cheerfully, "good luck! We'll need that thing in court tomorrow!"

_Yeah, yeah_, Ema thought, _no pressure._

* * *

_June 28, 11:59 PM, Wright Anything Agency_

Trucy stared out the window into the empty street. Once again, Phoenix was out all night, although nowadays he didn't even have the poker circuit excuse. Who even knew what he was up to? Normally it didn't bother Trucy, but… People Park _was _right around the corner from where they lived, and two people had died there in as many weeks! And it was just about midnight - if Phoenix wasn't home by now, he should have told her that he was going to be out all night, as opposed to just disappearing again. _He _always_ does this_, Trucy thought bitterly.

The phone rang suddenly. "Hello? Wright Anything Agency," Trucy said, picking up the phone immediately.

"Heya, Trucy," Phoenix said on the other end.

"Daddy!" Trucy yelled, "Do you have any idea what time it is!?"

"…no," Phoenix said after a long pause, "but isn't it dark out?"

"It's past midnight, Daddy!" Trucy shouted into the phone.

"Oh, it is?" Phoenix asked, his voice sounding a little muffled - he was probably holding his phone away from his head. "Shouldn't you be in bed, then?"

"That's not funny!" Trucy cried, "Where are you? When are you coming home?!"

"Uh," Phoenix said, "actually, I'm probably not coming home tonight."

"R-Really?" asked Trucy, tears in her eyes. "Oh… okay. Are you sure?"

"Yeah," Phoenix said apologetically, "will you be okay on your own?"

"Of course I will!" Trucy said, picking herself up, "I locked the doors and everything!"

"…it's okay to be scared," Phoenix said, and Trucy cringed, "I mean, yeah, two people got murdered right on our doorstep..."

"I'm not, I'm not scared," Trucy said, "if I'm scared about anything, it's that… what if something happens to you?"

"Nothing will happen to me," Phoenix assured her, "I just don't want you to be scared that someone will break into the Agency and-"

"I'm fine," Trucy interrupted, "really, I am."

"Trucy."

"What?"

"I don't need any special powers to tell that you're lying," Phoenix said, "there's nothing wrong with being frightened. Do you want me to call Edgeworth? He can come pick you up, and you can stay at his house tonight… you'll be safe there."

"…okay," Trucy said in a small voice, "Yeah."

"I'm gonna hang up now," Phoenix said, his voice soft, "so keep the doors locked until Uncle Edgeworth gets here, okay?"

"Right," said Trucy. It was a good thing she had a toothbrush and some clothes in Edgeworth's guest rooms to begin with.

"I love you, Trucy."

"I love you too, Daddy." And Phoenix hung up, leaving Trucy to continue staring out the window until Edgeworth showed up.

* * *

**Sorry if the last scene seemed out-of-place. I mean, this fic is _supposed_ to be about Trucy, but Apollo was taking all her screentime. How dare you, Apollo.**


	4. Day 3

**A/N: For those of you who were wondering: yes, I do have plans to carry this over into Dual Destinies, but I intend on doing that as a sequel as opposed to just continuing this fic. After the last day of trial, I'll write an epilogue, and then start work on other fics.**

* * *

_June 29, 9:48 AM, District Court, Defendant's Lobby #9_

"So, how's this gonna go, dude?"

Apollo rolled his eyes at Clay. "You asked that yesterday."

"The question still stands," Clay said, grinning.

"Well," Apollo said, fixing his tie, "I guess it's really all up to the prosecution. Trucy said she had some more witnesses… and if they've found the wagon and the jacket yet, who knows?"

"Hm," Clay said, "I wonder who the witnesses are?" Apollo shrugged.

"You'll see." Apollo and Clay turned around. When did Trucy get in here?

"Hi, Prosecutor Wright!" Clay said cheerfully.

"Ready to get a guilty verdict, Mr. Terran?" Trucy asked, equally as cheerfully and also without a trace of irony.

"Nope!"

"Don't worry, I've got you all figured out," Trucy said, smiling and rubbing her neck.

"Trucy, go away," Apollo said.

"Did you hurt your neck, Prosecutor Wright?" Clay asked.

"N-No," Trucy said, "actually, I spent the night at Uncle Edgeworth's house… except I fell asleep in the car on the way there. I woke up on his couch, so…"

"Yeah," Clay said, crossing his arms, "couches don't do great things to your spine, huh?"

"Nope, not really," Trucy said cheerfully, "that's why all couches should be pull-out couches."

"Yeah!" said Clay, "that way, if someone makes you sleep on the couch, you'd actually be sleeping on a bed!" Trucy and Clay started chatting happily about couches.

_How do I know these people_, Apollo asked himself. _Did I do something really horrible in a past life?_

* * *

_June 29, 10:00 AM, District Court, Courtroom #9_

"Court is now in session for the trial of Mr. Clay Terran," the Judge said.

"The prosecution is ready, your Honor," Trucy said, still rubbing her neck. Surely a man that frilly-looking could afford a nicer couch?

"The defense is ready, your Honor," Apollo said. _The defendant, however, is not_, he added privately, glancing at Clay. His enthusiasm of yesterday had diminished slightly, although he still either didn't quite grasp the gravity of the situation or else was a little too confident in Apollo's defending skills.

"Now, as I recall, court was adjourned yesterday for the purpose of finding two important pieces of evidence," the Judge said, "Miss Wright, has the prosecution been able to find either of these things?"

"Unfortunately no, your Honor," Trucy said, "although we can confirm where they _aren't_, anyway. However," she said, "I have officers still looking for the wagon as we speak."

"And the jacket?" Apollo said.

Trucy shrugged. "Every member of the HAT-2 team has a jacket, and the only one leftover from the original HAT-1 team has been in police custody for years. So we know who exactly has these jackets and we were able to confirm that none of the other jackets were missing. Therefore, the jacket witnessed at the crime scene did indeed belong to the defendant."

"But you still haven't found it yet?" Apollo said, pressing his forehead with his finger.

"...no," Trucy said, putting her finger to her mouth, "I know, it bugs me too - I _know_ I've seen a GYAXA jacket somewhere that wasn't the space center lately, but I can't quite remember where... regardless," she continued, perking up again, "at this point, the only important thing about the jacket is the fact that it's currently unaccounted for. Most likely we'll find it with the wagon."

"That makes sense," the Judge said.

_There's something fishy about all this_, Apollo thought, _that jacket is definitely more important than Trucy's letting on, and I bet she knows it._ But he didn't have anything more substantial than a nagging feeling right now.

"Miss Wright," the Judge continued, "you may call your first witness."

"Of course, your Honor," Trucy said cheerfully, "this witness should clear up exactly _how_ Mr. Dejeu was drowned." She grinned at Apollo. What was she up to? "The prosecution calls Mal Keyway to the stand!"

A feminine-looking man wearing entirely black clothing took the stand. His hair was a light bluish color and seemed to sparkle somewhat. His eyes couldn't be seen under thick, round glasses.

"Witness, name and occupation, please," Trucy said.

"My name is Mal Keyway," he said, pushing his glasses up with one finger, "I'm a freelance actor, although I also do part-time work as a barista at Space Latte."

"And tell the court your relationship with the victim," Trucy said.

Keyway nodded. "Bernie is - was - a friend of mine, since high school. In fact," he said, flipping his hair, sending sparkles everywhere, "I was with him the afternoon of the murder." The gallery broke into discussion, which the Judge silence with his mighty gavel.

_He sure doesn't seem too concerned about Dejeu's death_, Apollo thought, exasperated. If one of _his_ friends was murdered, he would stop at nothing to find the killer.

"Witness, please tell the court what happened the afternoon of the murder," Trucy said.

"Well, the afternoon of the murder, Bernie and I were hanging out," Keyway said, scratching his chin, "and he got a phone call. I overheard him making plans to meet someone at the park," he said, his ears turning slightly pink, "at around 10:00, I think it was. I asked him who had called once he got off the phone, and he said it was his ex-girlfriend's current boyfriend," Keyway finished, his ears turning slightly pink again. And of course Apollo's bracelet had reacted.

_Where to start with this,_ Apollo mused.

"Mr. Justice, your cross-examination please," the Judge was saying.

"Yes, your Honor," Apollo said, "Witness. Um, about what time did Mr. Dejeu take this call?"

"...around 6:00?" Keyway said, "Is that important?"

Apollo paused. He couldn't vouch for Clay's activity at that time, and it was unlikely that anyone else could, either. "No, it isn't." He put his finger to his forehead. "So you have no way to actually prove that it was the defendant on the phone with the victim?"

"Bernie said he was on the phone with his ex-girlfriend's current boyfriend," Keyway said stubbornly. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze went the bracelet. _Okay, he's definitely lying_, Apollo thought, _but why?_

"Hold it!" Apollo said, slamming his fists on his desk, "were those Mr. Dejeu's exact words?!"

"Uh..." Keyway said, scratching his chin, "I... think so...?"

"In that case, how do you know 'ex-girlfriend's current boyfriend' refers to my client?" Apollo demanded, "or, for that matter, that 'ex-girlfriend' even refers to Ms. Zuvan?!"

"We looked into Mr. Dejeu's background," Trucy interrupted, "the only other girl he's ever dated has not been in a relationship with anybody for several years."

"Oh," Apollo said. _Loser_, he thought. Time to approach this from a different angle... but what? Wait a minute, the jacket wasn't the only fishy thing here... "So, this testimony supports the version of events that the defendant summoned Mr. Dejeu to the park, where he drugged him and drowned him in the river?"

"It would seem so, yes," Trucy said, bouncing.

"Objection!" Apollo yelled.

"Indoor voice, Mr. Justice," the Judge said.

"S-Sorry, your Honor, but something about that version of events just doesn't make sense," Apollo said, adopting his thinking pose, "let's say for argument's sake that Mr. Terran was the real killer. In that case, removing the wagon from the park would be a logical action, assuming he was trying to misdirect the investigation. However," Apollo said, slamming his fists on the bench again, "that would only make sense _because_ the wagon is currently unaccounted for. Why, then, would he take the Zolpidem bottle _back to his own apartment?!_" he yelled, pointing at Trucy, "especially since you implied yesterday that Mr. Terran was not aware of his fingerprints on the bottle!"

"Why, that's right!" the Judge said, "if the victim were killed in the park, then the defendant would certainly have left the superiffics there!" The Judge nodded. "In fact, if he had put the bottle on the victim's person, then it would even look like a suicide! His actions make no sense!"

"And since Mr. Dejeu was drowned in the river at People Park, according to the eyewitness," Apollo said, crossing his arms confidently, "Mr. Terran clearly can't be the killer. This witness is lying!"

The crowd broke out into discussion. Trucy bounced on the balls of her feet while she waited for the Judge to settle the gallery down, chipper as ever. Apollo was unnerved. Hadn't he just blown a huge hole in her case? Why was she so calm?

"That is true," Trucy said once order had been restored, "assuming that the crime scene is, in fact, People Park."

"What?" the Judge said, "You mean to say that it isn't?"

"Nope!" Trucy said gleefully, "At least, not according to the updated autopsy report!"

"Wh... WHAAAAAAAAAT?!" Apollo screamed. The gallery broke out into conversation again.

"Order! Order!" the Judge commanded, banging his gavel. "Miss Wright! Explain yourself!"

"Certainly," Trucy said, adjusting the brim of her hat, smiling dazzlingly, "we ran some more tests on the composition of the water found in Mr. Dejeu's lungs. It doesn't match the river water from People Park at all... in fact, it's bathwater."

"Bathwater?" Apollo said, stunned.

"Meaning," Trucy continued, "that what Mr. Dromeda saw was not the moment of the murder, but rather when Mr. Terran dumped the body. Mr. Dejeu was actually drowned in the bathtub in Mr. Terran's apartment!"

"What?!" Apollo shouted, "OBJECTION! There's no way-"

"Mr. Justice, what time did you get home the night of the murder?" Trucy said, putting her arms behind her back.

"W-Well," Apollo said, putting his finger to his forehead, "I, er, got home at around midnight that night… however! When Clay called me to let me know that he wouldn't be at the apartment when I got home, there was no one with him!"

"Can you prove that?" Trucy said.

"I didn't hear anyone else!" Apollo said.

"That's not proof, Mr. Justice," the Judge said.

"Therefore," Trucy said, clearing her throat, "the Zolpidem being found in the defendant's apartment is hardly a contradiction. If anything, it just serves to make Mr. Terran even more suspicious!"

Apollo recoiled, his hair drooping into his face. This wasn't going well. "Wait a minute," Apollo said, picking himself back up, "that would still mean that the witness is lying! If the crime scene was the killer's bathtub, why would the victim be summoned to the park?"

"I, uh," Keyway said, his glasses cracking, "well, I suppose I… must have misheard Bernie…?"

"There's no way you can mishear 'apartment' for 'park'!" Apollo shouted.

"I-Isn't the defendant's apartment close to a park? One that surrounds a lake?" Keyway said nervously, "no, wait, I'm thinking of someone else… the defendant's apartment is right around the corner from People Park, right?"

"Your excuses are getting flimsier and flimsier," Apollo said, "and where the victim was summoned to… that's not the only thing you're lying about!"

"What else is he lying about?" Trucy said.

"Who was on the phone with Mr. Dejeu the afternoon of the murder," Apollo said, crossing his arms, "and at both points in your testimony, witness, your ears turned slightly pink, like you were blushing… embarrassed about something, I'd say."

"Something embarrassing…" Trucy said, putting her finger to her mouth, thinking, "Mr. Keyway. Are you being blackmailed into changing your testimony?"

"N-Nothing like that," Keyway said, his glasses cracking a little more, "I'm just… uh… could the defense please stop staring at me like that…?"

"Witness," Trucy said, also staring at Keyway very intently, "this is a court of law. Lying under oath will not be tolerated."

"F-F-Fine," Keyway said before his glasses crumbled into little bits entirely, "yes… I am being asked to change my testimony by someone else… but I can't tell you who!"

"Witness!" the Judge said, "We do not treat perjury very lightly here!" _You don't?_ thought Apollo.

"I. Can't. Tell. You," Keyway said through gritted teeth, "I… I plead the fifth!"

"What?" Trucy said, "Witness, you are aware that the fifth amendment only applies to _self-incrimination_, right?"

"Being coerced into changing your testimony is not incriminating, since we already know that you did change your testimony!" Apollo shouted.

"Oh," Keyway said, "well, h-how do you know it isn't? As long as I refuse to talk about it, my reason for lying very well _could be_ incriminating somehow!"

"The witness has a point," the Judge said, "as such, he is now dismissed from the stand."

_Shouldn't you be arresting him for perjury right about now?_ Apollo thought, exasperated.

"Now what?" said the Judge.

"…does the defense have any theories as to who exactly has been tampering with Mr. Keyway's testimony?" Trucy asked.

"Hmm," Apollo said, poking his forehead, "the real killer, obviously! But as for who that is… I can't say." He had no evidence... yet. "However, the defense believes that there is some testimony that we need to revisit."

"And whose testimony would this be?" the Judge said.

"Badriyyah Zuvan's, your Honor," Apollo said, "we've already had one witness clearly lie about the defendant calling the victim, which ought to cast some doubt on the testimony of a witness who stated the same thing."

The Judge nodded. "Miss Wright-"

"I knew this would happen," Trucy said, "however, Ms. Zuvan is currently not prepared as a witness."

"Do you need a short recess?" the Judge said, raising his gavel. Trucy shook her head.

"I actually have a witness prepared who can corroborate Ms. Zuvan's claims," she said, "the prosecution calls Magel Laniklowd to the stand!"

Laniklowd was an unusually tall, extremely buff man in a star-spangled muscle shirt and way-too-short shorts. _Does this courtroom not have some sort of dress code?_ Apollo thought.

"Witness, name and occupation," Trucy said.

"Magel Laniklowd," the witness said, "used car dealer."

"Please tell the court what you saw four months ago," Trucy said.

Laniklowd nodded. "I'm a friend of Bernie's," he began, "so I know about his relationship with Badriyyah. He, ah, never really got over her when she dumped him for Terran. He'd always call her and beg her to take him back... I suppose Badriyyah could've felt as though she were being harassed." And here's where Apollo's bracelet started tightening: "About four months ago, Bernie and I were at a bar when Terran suddenly stormed in. He was yelling at Bernie, 'Leave my girlfriend alone!', that sort of thing. They got into a fistfight and, um, Bernie lost pretty badly, so after that he was pretty scared of Terran, I think. He would always talk about how he was worried that Terran would come after him... so he never called Badriyyah again."

_I wonder if this testimony is just one gigantic lie_, Apollo thought, _for one thing, Clay's pretty pacifistic... although I can't use his personality as evidence_. Then again, he doubted Laniklowd knew the true nature of the relationship between Badriyyah and Dejeu, so the real question was how much of his own testimony he believed.

"Mr. Justice, your cross-examination, please," the Judge said.

Apollo nodded. "Witness," he said, "my client isn't the type to get into bar fights. Can you prove that what you say actually happened?"

"Well, love can do crazy things to a guy's head," Laniklowd said defensively, "and how am I supposed to prove a bar fight happened?"

"Did you call any authorities?" Apollo said, "For instance, an ambulance for any injuries sustained by either party, or the police to detain Mr. Terran for assault?"

"...y-yes, of course I did!" Laniklowd said.

"Objection! The defendant has no criminal record!" Apollo said, "If you called the police like you say, why was he never charged with assault?!"

"Objection!" Trucy said, "The witness is misremembering things. There are no reports of any bar fights four months ago. You're thinking of a different incident, aren't you, Mr. Laniklowd?"

"Oh," Laniklowd said, sweating, "yeah, I guess I am. We didn't call 911, since Bernie's injuries weren't very severe. We just used a first aid kit."

"Hold it! The only injuries reported in the autopsy report were sustained around the time of death," Apollo said, "there's no evidence he was actually injured four months ago."

Trucy wagged her finger at him. "Polly- er, Mr. Justice, pay attention! The witness just said that the victim's injuries weren't very severe. Of course they'd be completely healed in four months!"

"W-Well," Apollo said, "um... there are other ways that we could verify that this alleged bar fight happened in the first place! Has the prosecution been able to locate any other witnesses to corroborate Mr. Laniklowd's story?"

"No," Trucy said, "we were informed that the bar was empty at the time of the altercation."

"What about the bartender?" the Judge said.

"He was... in the back room at the time," Laniklowd said.

"Shouldn't he have heard something?" Apollo said, "Witness, you stated that the defendant was shouting." Laniklowd shrugged.

"The defense is grasping at straws, your Honor," Trucy said.

"Hey!"

"Mr. Justice," the Judge said, "can you prove that the bartender _must_ have heard the shouting?"

"Perhaps the bartender was hard of hearing," Trucy said.

"I think the back room might have been soundproofed," Laniklowd said, scratching his ear.

"I... witness, can you give us the name of the bar this supposedly happened at?" Apollo said, exasperated.

"I don't remember," Laniklowd said promptly.

"Objection!" Apollo shouted, "the witness' memory is faulty! This is inadmissible as testimony!"

"Do details like the name of the bar really matter?" Trucy said.

"Y-... Yes! Of course they do!" Apollo protested, "Um..." he frowned. _How am I supposed to prove that this never happened?_ "Well, witness, can you at least tell us the exact date that this happened on?!"

"I don't remember," Laniklowd said again. Apollo felt very much like banging his head on the desk.

"Your Honor!" Apollo said, pointing desperately, "the witness' story is completely unverifiable! This is inadmissible as testimony!"

"Hmm..." the Judge said, closing his eyes in thought, "well, what are we supposed to do with the witness in that case?"

"...dismiss him?" Trucy said, grinning. Inadmissible or not, she probably knew that she had already convinced the Judge.

"Hold it!" Apollo said, "there's something else I'd like the witness to tell the court about."

"And what would that be?" the Judge said.

"I think we should hear about the relationship between Ms. Zuvan and the victim," Apollo said, putting his finger to his forehead.

"Wouldn't that only serve to further establish the defendant's motive?" Trucy said, putting her finger next to her mouth.

"I... no, there's something else there," Apollo said.

"Your Honor, the prosecution has no objections to this line of questioning," Trucy said.

"Very well," the Judge said, "witness. Please tell the court about the relationship between Ms. Zuvan and Mr. Dejeu."

"Um... well," Laniklowd said, "when I say Badriyyah dumped Bernie for Terran, I mean just that - she literally said the reason why she was leaving him was so that she could date Terran. Bernie was _really_ upset about it. He talked about her all the time, and he called her a lot. I'd say it was harassment - he was always talking about meeting her someplace or coming by her house, and he still called her by those really cutesy girlfriend nicknames. It was almost like he wasn't aware that they had broken up... it was really sad."

"Hmm," said the Judge, "well, Mr. Justice?"

"Your Honor, do you recall yesterday when Ms. Zuvan stated that the victim was 'harassing' her and that she was 'a little scared of' him?" Apollo said, reading off of the transcript of Badriyyah's testimony.

"Yes," the Judge said, "and it's very clear from this testimony that she wasn't exaggerating."

"In that case, one thing has become very clear," Apollo said, crossing his arms confidently.

"And what would that be?" Trucy said.

"My client isn't the only one with a motive."

The gallery broke into discussion. "Order! Order!" the Judge yelled, banging his gavel, "Mr. Justice. Do you intend to indict Ms. Zuvan?"

"No," Apollo said. _Not yet, anyway_. "However, if we assume that Keyway's testimony was _partially_ true, then we can't deny that Ms. Zuvan is a potential suspect."

"What do you mean by 'partially true'?" Trucy said.

"If he wasn't lying about the fact that Mr. Dejeu had, in fact, been summoned someplace by the killer," Apollo said, "then it would actually make Ms. Zuvan more suspicious than Mr. Terran, because Mr. Dejeu would be much more likely to accept an invitation from her than from him."

"I see," said the Judge, "what is your opinion on this, Miss Wright?"

"Well, it's clear already that at this time, it's impossible to declare a verdict," Trucy said, adopting her 'thinking' pose, "because as of yet, the wagon and the jacket still haven't been found. And the defense is correct in that Ms. Zuvan is another potential suspect... I think we need more time to investigate, your Honor."

"Very well," the Judge said, "the defense and the prosecution obviously both need to look into this further... therefore, until tomorrow, this court is adjourned."

* * *

_June 29, 2:37 PM, Detention Center_

"No turning back now," Clay said cheerfully.

"You seem awfully chipper," Apollo said, "considering your girlfriend is now officially considered a murder suspect."

Clay's smile faltered a bit. "I really wish it didn't have to be like this," he said, "but it is. I can't date a murderer, man!"

"…so you're saying she's not your girlfriend anymore?" Apollo said.

"Dude. Don't get any ideas."

"I was - never mind," Apollo said, "so, do you have any idea who the heck Keyway and Laniklowd were?"

"No clue, dude," Clay said, "except that they said they were both friends of Dejeu's."

"I wonder why they're lying, then," Apollo said, "they're obviously trying to frame you... but why would they do that if they don't know you?"

"Hmm," Clay said, "wait. Remember how Laniklowd called me 'Terran' but called Badri by her first name? What if they know Badri and they're covering for her?"

"Come to think of it," Apollo said, "that is true. And when Keyway got confused about where we live, he mentioned a park around a lake..."

"Gourd Lake?" Clay said.

Apollo nodded. "That's where Badriyyah lives."

"Maybe she's the one who's blackmailing Keyway!" Clay said.

"Yeah," Apollo said, "she's clearly trying to cover all her bases here." He sighed. "I really hope we're right about the wagon being decisive evidence against her, because other than that, we have nothing but speculation."

"Unless you could get Keyway to testify against her!" Clay said, standing up excitedly, "All you need to do is find out what she's blackmailing him with..."

"Easier said than done," Apollo said, "but I'll see if I can talk to him. Somehow."

"...maybe talk to Badri, too," Clay said, "she's smart, but maybe you could trip her up somehow."

"Definitely easier said than done," Apollo said.

"You can do it, man!" Clay said, putting one palm against the glass, "you need to. Launch is in eighteen months!"

"I know, I know," Apollo said, adjusting his tie, "I'll try." He re-crossed his arms, steeling himself. "Well, Keyway and Badriyyah better get ready, because here comes Justice!"

* * *

_June 29, 3:45 PM, Run Down Inn_

They had been perfectly upfront with Zuvan about how she was, technically speaking, a suspect now. However, it was not considered a necessary step to actually detain Zuvan. At this time, at least. Mostly because she was perfectly willing to let the police search her apartment.

Which had, of course, turned up nothing.

Speaking of Zuvan, Ema didn't like her at all and wished that they _could_ have detained her. Something about her rubbed her the wrong way. Was it her wannabe-silky voice? The way she dressed in a skin-tight sweater even though it was almost July? Maybe it was just the certain smugness she had about her - like she knew something Ema didn't.

_Try me_, Ema kept thinking, _just try me_. Sooner or later Zuvan would give her an excuse to punch her in the face. And if Zuvan sued, Ema could could just get Apollo to defend her, right?

"I can't _believe_ Apollo would accuse me," Zuvan was saying, "I just can't. What kind of defense is that?"

"He was just making a point," Trucy replied, bouncing (Ema was 99% sure that Trucy didn't like Zuvan much either, although Trucy was, embarrassingly enough, much more professional about all this than Ema was, even though it wasn't like she was usually the model of professionalism or anything), "Terran isn't the only one with a motive."

"Okay, motive maybe, I'll grant you that," Zuvan said, putting her hand against her chest and grimacing, "but does that mean I killed him? No. Why are you even bothering searching around here?"

"It's good to have a perfect investigation," Trucy said, "and that means investigation from all angles."

"Even the unlikely ones?" Zuvan snapped.

"Yep!" Trucy said, completely undaunted by Zuvan's belligerence.

Ema frowned. Zuvan did have a point. Except for a motive (and the fact that Ema didn't like her, which wasn't exactly an uncommon trait), Zuvan just wasn't very suspicious - that's why she hadn't been detained in the first place, after all. So it made sense that there wasn't really anything material tying her to the crime - the closest thing to evidence against Zuvan was the fact that she owned several models similar to the one found in Dejeu's pocket, except that they had already run handwriting analysis on the name on that. It was undoubtably Terran's model.

Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately, it was hard to tell), Apollo arrived on his bike. "Hey Ema, Trucy," he said, then coughed slightly before continuing, "Badriyyah."

"Mr. Justice," Zuvan said icily.

"It's just a misdirection tactic," Trucy said cheerfully.

"And I suppose you think I'm the one who was tampering with certain testimonies, too," Zuvan said.

"How do you know any testimonies were tampered with?" Ema said, raising an eyebrow.

"...I was in the gallery," Zuvan said, looking at Ema with distaste, "I saw the whole trial." Apollo frowned at her.

"Apollo, you talk to her," Ema grumbled.

Apollo gave her a look that plainly read _Why do I always have to do your work for you_, then turned to Zuvan. "Badriyyah, I-"

"Stop," Zuvan said, holding her hand up rudely, "Mr. Justice. I understand why you accused me, but, quite frankly, you're insane. And I can't believe you did that!" She put her hand on her hip, glaring at Apollo fiercely. Apollo looked uncomfortable. "How _dare_ you. And I can't imagine Clay's happy with you either, accusing his girlfriend of all people-"

"Clay told me everything," Apollo blurted out.

There was a long silence.

"...Mr. Justice," Zuvan said, frowning, "we need to talk." She glanced towards Ema and Trucy dismissively. "Privately."

Apollo looked suspiciously at her for a while, then nodded. Zuvan swung around and stalked off towards the lake. After a quick, slightly confused glance at Ema, Apollo followed.

"I wonder what Terran told Polly?" Trucy said, putting her finger to her mouth.

Ema shrugged. "I doubt Apollo even considered for a second that Terran was lying to cover for himself," she said.

"Ema," Trucy said, looking at Ema with her piercing 'serious' stare, "do _you_ remember seeing Zuvan in the gallery today?"

Ema played with her hair, thinking. She wasn't sure. "Do you want me to go check the admission tickets?"

Trucy put her hands behind her back, then smiled again. "Nah. I'll go check. You keep searching the area - something might come up."

"Yeah," Ema said, "maybe." Actually, she was wondering what Zuvan was talking with Apollo about. Even if Terran was lying, Zuvan had certainly had an _interesting_ reaction to hearing that Apollo had been told "everything".

* * *

_Meanwhile, with Apollo_

Apollo had never really appreciated what a beautiful bit of scenery Gourd Lake was, mainly because up until now he had never had a reason to focus on it. The reason now being: he still didn't want to look at Badriyyah too long - although now it was more the fact that he was beginning to see who she really was, not her lack of availability.

"Apollo," Badriyyah said, her voice much softer than it was before, but it still had a slightly menacing lilt to it, "tell me, what exactly do you mean by 'everything'?"

"I mean," Apollo said, still looking determinedly over the lake, "Clay told me _everything_." He chanced a look at Badriyyah. If he focused, he could see a bead of sweat beginning to break at her temple.

"Everything is just a word," she said, frowning, "I asked what you meant by it. Tell me."

"Tell you?" Apollo said, narrowing his eyes, "fine. Clay told me about how you were cheating on him with Dejeu-" There was no mistaking the shock in her eyes, although her expression remained carefully aloof. "-and how you were the one who asked him to be at the park at the time of the murder-" Apollo stiffened. He suddenly remembered something Clay had said off-hand yesterday. "-and how he left his GYAXA jacket at your apartment!" Badriyyah took a step back, her hand pressing against her chest and her expression angry. Apollo took an even larger step forward. "And I'm willing to bet you're the one who tampered with Keyway's testimony - and Laniklowd's too, I bet!"

"You can't prove that," Badriyyah hissed, "you can't prove anything."

"No, I can't," Apollo said, taking another step forward - Badriyyah didn't step back like he expected, but he didn't want to back away - "not yet, anyway."

Badriyyah glared at him for a minute, then her lips pressed together tightly. "How dare you," she said through clenched teeth, "how. Dare. You. Targeting me like this - you don't have proof now. You never will." Her hand suddenly shot out and grabbed Apollo's arm.

The thought _Wow her skin is really soft_ crossed Apollo's mind, but he pushed it aside quickly. He had to keep pressing her. "I know you did it," he said loudly, although Badriyyah was the only one around to hear him, "so the proof must exist."

"That's what you'd like to think, isn't it?" Badriyyah said, then let out a short, wild laugh and threw herself up against Apollo, wrapping her arms tightly around him, pinning his arms to his sides in the process. _Oh_, Apollo thought - nothing more, because it was suddenly very hard to think. The already-hot afternoon was beginning to get even hotter.

"I - I know I'm right," Apollo said, struggling half-heartedly, "w-w-we'll find it. You'll pay f-for what you did to Dejeu - and for framing C-Clay...!"

"Ha ha, of course I will," Badriyyah said, putting her face uncomfortably close to Apollo's, "well, if that's what you want to believe, Apollo... good luck proving anything." She laughed again, madly, but softer now - for some reason Apollo thought of wildlife documentaries, and the growl the predators made before killing their prey.

"S-Stop touching me," Apollo said, wanting desperately to move but feeling oddly paralyzed.

"Do you still think I was the one who changed Keyway's and Laniklowd's testimonies?" Badriyyah murmured, her hands beginning to creep downward - _I need an adult_, Apollo thought, _I need a different adult_ - "...would you like to see how I did that, Apoooollo?" she said, drawing out his name like she was playing with it in her mouth, "come on. Forget about 'finding the real killer' - get Clay free and your job's over. Just let it go..."

Her lips were drawing closer and closer to Apollo's - by now her hands were in a place that legally qualified as sexual harassment - Apollo was starting to find it hard to breathe normally - and suddenly a fist came flying out of nowhere and hit Badriyyah square in the jaw.

"What do you think you're doing?!" a familiar detective yelled as Badriyyah hit the ground with a loud thud.

"E-Ema," Apollo gasped, still unable to tear his wide eyes off of Badriyyah. He sunk to his knees, and then he caught it - a quick glance towards the lake...

"And what do you think _you're_ doing?!" Ema demanded of Apollo, "she's your client's girlfriend!"

"Ema, the lake!" Apollo yelled, grabbing her arm and pulling himself up, "you need to dredge the lake!"

"I need to - what?" Ema said, yanking her arm back, bewildered but still angry.

"No!" Badriyyah yelled suddenly, sitting up and wincing, "D-Detective Skye, that's unnecessary-"

"Can it," Ema snapped, holding up her fist threateningly, "there's more where that came from, you _skank_."

"Ema!" Apollo said reproachfully, then shook his head, "ignore her, Ema, you need to call and get someone to search the lake-"

"What?" Ema said, still glaring distractedly at Badriyyah, "what about the lake?"

"Badriyyah- the evidence-" Apollo said, gesturing frantically, "it's in the lake! The evidence we need to indict Badriyyah!"

"I..." Ema said, looking at Apollo, "the evidence?" She clapped a hand to the side of her face. "Oh! The evidence! Yes, I'll-" she looked at Badriyyah again. "I _knew_ we couldn't trust you," she hissed, then whipped out her phone.

"You don't have anything on me," Badriyyah hissed back, then stood up, brushed herself off indignantly, and stalked off.

"Yet," Ema said irritably, putting her phone back in her pocket and pulling out a bag of Snackoos instead, "Apollo... what is it between you and her?"

"N-Nothing," Apollo said quickly, "she just... attacked me." He pushed his hair back, embarrassed. "Why does it matter to you, anyway?"

Ema glared at him for a minute (Apollo noticed that her cheeks were slightly pinker than usual - was that just the heat?), then turned away. "It doesn't," she said firmly.

"You punched her."

"I've been looking for an excuse," Ema said flippantly, then turned back to Apollo, frowning, "and I should've punched you, too - stealing your client's girlfriend like that is a total scumbag move, Apollo." She threw a Snackoo at him. Ka-tonk!

"I told you," Apollo said, exasperated and still not feeling any less humiliated, "_she_ came onto _me_."

"You should've punched her." Apollo stared at her. Had no one ever told her that men weren't supposed to hit women? "Anyway," Ema said in a huff, "pity she didn't fight back. Now _that_ would give me a good reason to arrest her."

"Why do you hate Badriyyah so much?" Apollo said.

Ema only coughed awkwardly in response, then said, "The dredging equipment should be here soon. I'll go keep an eye on the suspect. You stay put." She stalked off in the same direction Badriyyah did. Apollo stared after her for a second, then sat down on a nearby bench. Probably not a good idea to disobey Ema...

Fifteen minutes later, Ema reappeared, followed by Trucy, who was carrying a fishing pole. "Budget cuts," Ema said in response to Apollo's raised eyebrow.

"Daddy said there was a boat rental shop somewhere around here," Trucy said.

"...didn't the owner get arrested?" Apollo said, recalling one of Wright's earliest cases.

Trucy shrugged. "Maybe the boats are still there."

Ema and Apollo followed Trucy to the other side of the lake, where there was an abandoned shack that Apollo had never really noticed before. Sure enough, there were some old boats scattered in the grass around it. The motley trio spent a few minutes poking around (with Apollo nearly getting bit by a snake) before Trucy found a boat that didn't have a hole in it.

"Okay, Polly," she said cheerfully, "get this into the water!"

"Can't you just use magic or something," Apollo said irritably, but started tugging it towards the lake. "Is this even legal?"

"Don't worry," Ema said, adjusting her glasses and being otherwise useless, "we're law enforcement."

_That doesn't make it legal_, Apollo thought as he finally managed to get the boat into the water at the expense of his socks, shoes, and pants below the knee. Trucy and Ema immediately climbed into the boat. "Okay, Polly, push us off!" Trucy said, pointing out over the lake.

"Hold it! I'm coming with you!" Apollo yelled, giving the boat a hard shove and then scrambling in himself.

"Apollo, you're going to tip the boat!" Ema cried, putting her hands on either side of it.

"He can row," Trucy said, pulling a large paddle out of her magic panties (_I give up_, thought Apollo) and throwing it to him.

"H-Hey," Apollo said, his hair drooping.

"Let's find that evidence," Trucy said in a sing-song voice, ignoring Apollo, then cast the fishing line out over the lake.

"Do you think we'll find the wagon?" Ema said.

"I bet," Apollo said.

"Did Terran have the opportunity to dump the wagon in the lake all the way over here?" Ema said thoughtfully.

"No," Apollo said at the same time Trucy said, "Yes."

"Oh, by the way, Ema," Trucy said, "I had them run a check on the gallery admission tickets for today - she didn't have one herself, although I guess we can't discount her using someone else's ticket. But the bailiff says he would've remembered her," she added, frowning thoughtfully.

"I knew she was lying about being the gallery," Apollo said, "she admitted to me that she was the one tampering with Keyway's testimony. And Laniklowd's, too!"

"Can you prove that?" Trucy said dismissively.

"Well, no, but-"

"And we can't technically prove that was lying about being the gallery, either," Ema said sourly.

"You certainly arrested Clay on less than that," Apollo snapped.

"Look," Ema sighed, "have a little faith in the police force. If the evidence we found _didn't_ point to him, we would have released him." She looked at Apollo smugly. "Most of the evidence still points to him."

Apollo glared at her.

"Hey, hey, I got something!" Trucy yelled excitedly, yanking on the fishing pole, "I got something!"

"Don't break the fishing pole!" Ema said, snatching it from Trucy, "Detective Gumshoe would be-" Ema and Trucy hit the floor of the boat as large air bubbles suddenly began surfacing where the line was. "We got it!" Trucy jumped up, ignoring the fact that the boat was now rocking wildly, pulled her gloves off with her teeth, and plunged her hands into the water. Ema shoved the fishing pole into Apollo's hands then began helping Trucy pull whatever they had just found out of the lake.

It was the wagon.

"Oh," Trucy said, startled.

"Is that... the wagon that Dromeda saw?" Ema said.

"Well, it's certainly big enough to carry a body," Apollo said.

Trucy pointed at a dark patch on the handle of the wagon. "Is that rust?"

"Maybe," said Apollo, "it's probably been in the lake a few days."

"If it's rusted from being the lake for a few days, it shouldn't look like that. Maybe this wagon is unrelated after all?" Ema said, then frowned suddenly. She leaned over (the boat was tilting dangerously now) and closely inspected the bed of the wagon. "There's some hair stuck here."

"Send it to the lab as soon as we get back to shore," Trucy said promptly.

"Wait, what's the dark spot, then?" Apollo said.

"One way to find out," Ema said gleefully, pulling out her luminol testing fluid and handing both Apollo and Trucy pairs of glasses, before putting her own over her eyes.

"It's been in the lake for a few days," Apollo said skeptically, "it's still wet."

"All that means is that we won't really be able to uncover fingerprints," Ema said, spraying the luminol on the handle of the wagon. Sure enough, it was blood.

"...but the victim wasn't bleeding," Trucy said, bewildered, "I mean, I guess the scrapes on his body _could_ have been bleeding, but not that much."

"And it's on the handle," Ema said, playing with her hair.

"That's got to be the killer's blood," Apollo said, "there must have been a struggle of some sort. I guess Dejeu was winning."

"And then he passed out," Trucy said, "...Terran wasn't injured when we brought him in, was he?"

"I don't think so," Ema said, then glanced at Apollo, "but Zuvan doesn't appear to be injured either, does she?"

"Not that I saw," Apollo admitted.

"We'll run some tests on this blood," Trucy said, "there's no point to wondering where it came from until we find out whose it is."

"Assuming that the hair in the wagon bed belongs to Dejeu, anyway," Ema said, "right now, this is just a wagon."

_Right now_, Apollo repeated in his mind, _tomorrow, that will be just the case-breaking evidence I'm looking for._ Everything was starting to come together...

* * *

**A/N: For the record, Magel Laniklowd's name is a pun on "Magellanic Cloud". Hans Dromeda and Mal Keyway's names should be obvious - yep! All three of the witnesses are named after galaxies! Meanwhile, Badriyyah means "moon" and Zuvan means "stars", I think. I can't find my source anymore.**

**Bernie Dejeu was named after the victim of the fictional murder case that my French teacher challenged the class with last semester. I was the only one to catch the real killer! Anyway, most of the mechanics of this case (for instance, the drowning and the relationships between victim and suspects) have to do with my conclusions in the pretend murder-mystery, so I felt it was appropriate.**


	5. Day 4

_June 30, 9:50 AM, District Court, Defendant's Lobby #9_

"This is it," Apollo said, taking a deep breath, "Badriyyah's going down."

"Do you even have any solid evidence on her?" Clay said, grinning skeptically, which Apollo didn't really know until now was possible.

"...yes," Apollo said, "well, assuming the lab results are going to be what I _think_ they're going to be."

"Oh," Clay said, "you don't know yet?"

"I don't think they've come in yet."

"Hm," Clay said, then frowned. Apollo frowned too.

"Are you sure about this?" he said.

"What do you mean?" Clay replied, not really looking at Apollo.

"From here on out, I'm going on the offensive," Apollo said, "it's the last day of trial, so I can't afford to let up. When court lets out today... one of you is going to prison."

"I know," Clay said.

"And you're fine with that?"

Clay gave Apollo a long look, then said, "I loved her, man, but if I'm totally honest with myself... I knew it was her all along."

"…r… really now?" Apollo said.

Clay shrugged. "You know how she is. The only thing that surprises me is the fact that she planned it out."

"She seems like the 'crime of passion' type?" Apollo said. Clay nodded. "Remind me again why you were dating her?"

"…I didn't think the crime of passion would be directed towards me?" Clay said sheepishly. Apollo stared at him in disbelief.

"Court will begin soon," the guard said.

"Okay, let's go," Clay said cheerfully, "Come on, Apollo. I'm Clay Terran and I'm fine!"

* * *

_June 30, 10:00 AM, District Court, Courtroom #9_

"Court is now in session for the trial of Mr. Clay Terran."

"The defense is ready, your Honor."

"The prosecution is ready, your Honor."

"Now then," the Judge said, "have the jacket and wagon been found yet?"

"Actually, yes, your Honor," Trucy said, "at least the wagon has. It was found at the bottom of Gourd Lake following an, um, altercation between the defense attorney and today's witness."

_…That's not really how I would describe it_, Apollo thought.

"Oh my," said the Judge, "and you're sure this is the wagon that was used to move the body?"

"Yes, your Honor," Trucy said again, "the victim's hair was found embedded in the bed of the wagon."

"And the blood on the handle?" Apollo said.

"…there was another mix-up in the forensics department," Trucy said. _What do you mean, another?_ Apollo thought exasperatedly. "However," Trucy continued, "we do know that the blood on the handle did not match the victim."

"So you're expecting the results to come back at some point during the trial?" the Judge said.

"…I'd like to apologize for that, your Honor," Trucy said, "but yes. Yes I am."

"Whose blood are you currently checking it against?" Apollo asked.

"The defendant's, obviously," Trucy said, "but we did obtain a warrant for samples of Zuvan's blood, so…" Apollo breathed a sigh of relief. He knew it had to be her blood, so now the question was: would it get here on time?

And even if it were her blood… where did it come from?

"There were also partial fingerprints in the blood," Trucy noted, "but, again, we're not sure who they belong to yet, and we're cross-checking them against the defendant, the victim, and Ms. Zuvan."

"And the jacket?" the Judge said.

"We assume that it's been destroyed," Trucy said. Clay looked distressed.

"Is there any evidence to back that up?" Apollo said. Trucy shook her head.

"There _are_ incinerators at both Gatewater Apartments and Run Down Inn that are only accessible by the occupants of each apartment complex, and both had unidentifiable scraps of fabric in them, so… we thought it'd be found with the wagon, but it wasn't, so most likely the mysterious cloth in the Gatewater Apartments incinerator is the jacket."

"And you say the wagon was found at the bottom of Gourd Lake, Miss Wright?" the Judge said.

"Yes, your Honor," Trucy said, "while it is true that Gourd Lake is pretty far away from the defendant's apartment, going there isn't exactly out of the question."

"Objection!" Apollo said, "My client doesn't own a car - if he had walked all the way from People Park to Gourd Lake dragging a wagon behind him, somebody would have witnessed him!"

"It was the middle of the night, Mr. Justice," Trucy said cheerfully.

"I doubt anyone who lived between People Park and Gourd Lake was actually awake to witness anything," the Judge added.

"Also, let's say for argument's sake that the real killer is someone other than Mr. Terran," Trucy said, putting her finger to her mouth thoughtfully, "wouldn't they _also_ have to carry the wagon from People Park to Gourd Lake?"

"Uh… yes," said Apollo. _Let's just pretend that didn't just happen_, he thought.

"So without further ado," Trucy said, bouncing, "the prosecution calls Badriyyah Zuvan to the stand."

As Badriyyah took the stand, she gave Apollo such a hateful glare that Apollo was sure that his hair would catch on fire or something.

"Witness, name and occupation," Trucy said dauntlessly.

"Badriyyah Zuvan, aerospace engineering student at Ivy University," Badriyyah said aggressively. Her hands were firmly on her hips this time. _Oh boy_, Apollo thought, _she's not messing around here, is she?_

"Ms. Zuvan," Trucy said, "please testify regarding the relationship between the defendant and the victim."

"I already told you, didn't I?" Badriyyah said, looking aloof and arrogant.

"Their true relationship, witness," Trucy said, staring intently at her. "We've been over this."

"Yeah, yeah," Badriyyah said dismissively, "okay. The truth is… I don't know the relationship between Clay and Bernie. As far as I knew, they didn't even know each other." She smiled sardonically at the court. "That's why it's so odd that Clay would kill him. Seriously, a murder, with no motive? He's clearly a madman - I wasn't safe around him. So I had to get him behind bars at any cost." She moved one hand to the witness stand and gripped it tightly, laughing. "At _any_ cost."

"OBJECTION!" Apollo yelled as soon as she was done talking, "I object to this whole testimony!"

"So you object to the truth?" Badriyyah said contemptuously.

"The defendant is not a madman!" Apollo shouted.

"Oh, but isn't this just what you want, Mr. Justice?" Badriyyah said, "an admission that _I_ was the one screwing with Keyway's and Laniklowd's testimonies?" The crowd began muttering amongst itself.

"What!" said the Judge, "you were-?"

"Yes," said Trucy, "Ms. Zuvan is admitting to suborning perjury. But what's important here is her reasoning, your Honor."

"Yep," Badriyyah said, laughing wildly again, "I hope the court can forgive me, but Clay is friends with an attorney who has made quite a name for himself - if he could get a Kitaki declared innocent, imagine what he could do with Clay's perfect little crime?"

"Objection!" Apollo yelled, "need I remind you that the decisive evidence was found in the lake by _your_ apartment?!"

"Objection!" Trucy said, "it's not impossible for the defendant to have dumped the wagon in the lake!"

Apollo pounded his fists on the desk. "Why would he do that?!"

"Need I remind you how long it took the police to find the wagon?" Trucy replied, "he was clearly trying to ensure it wouldn't be found!"

Apollo growled, wondering if it was time to start edging into more dangerous, less provable territory. Should he… bluff?

"Mr. Justice, your cross-examination, please," the Judge said. Badriyyah grinned rapaciously.

Yeah, he should bluff.

"Witness," Apollo said, taking a deep breath, "what exactly was the relationship between _you_ and the victim?"

"I don't really think that's relevant," Badriyyah said scornfully.

"Please answer the question, Ms. Zuvan," Trucy said.

"Tch," Badriyyah said, irritated, "very well then." She titled her head, glaring at Apollo. "What _relationship_ do you expect me to testify about? I dated him. We broke up. The end."

"But was that really the end?" Apollo said, crossing his arms.

The corner of Badriyyah's mouth twitched into a momentary scowl, then she relaxed again. "You're a fool, Mr. Justice," she said, "believing anything Clay tells you… did it ever occur to you that he's lying to make me look suspicious? He just wants you to 'catch' me as the 'real killer'!"

There was a short pause. "The prosecution would like to request that the defense tell the court what exactly he's insinuating," Trucy said. Badriyyah glared at her.

"Yes, Mr. Justice," the Judge said, "what on earth are you talking about?"

"The witness was in a romantic relationship with the victim," Apollo said solemnly, "one that she hid from everyone… including her 'public' boyfriend, the defendant." He pressed his finger against his forehead. "Who knows what happened between her and the victim, especially considering she didn't want anyone to know about their continued relationship!" He pointed at Badriyyah, drew a deep breath, and shouted, "_You're_ the one who killed Bernie Dejeu!"

The peanut gallery burst into conversation. Badriyyah pressed one hand against her chest and growled. The Judge gasped.

"What led you to that conclusion, Mr. Justice?" Trucy said brightly. _Why isn't she asking for direct proof?_ Apollo thought, _has she dropped suspicion against Clay, or…?_

"My client knew about Ms. Zuvan's infidelity and told me about it," Apollo said, "he also told me about how the one who summoned him to the park at the night of the crime was her. Additionally, he also remembered that he had left his GYAXA jacket at her apartment, something which I can personally confirm."

"So, your reasoning is all based off of what the defendant told you?" Trucy said.

Apollo shook his head. "Naturally, the fact that she was tampering with Ehkha and Laniklowd's testimonies is extremely suspicious. And the defendant's belief that she was being unfaithful to him was supported by Laniklowd's testimony."

"You mean the one where he told you that Bernie'd been harassing me?" Badriyyah said.

Apollo nodded. "He didn't just tell us that Mr. Dejeu was harassing you, he described it." He picked up his transcript of Laniklowd's testimony. "I don't know about you, witness, but it sounds to me an awful lot like a normal boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. The only reason why he thought it was harassment was because he had no idea the two of you were actually dating!"

Badriyyah growled, and glared at Apollo and Trucy in turn. "F-Fine." She honestly looked as though she were plotting to murder Apollo, too. "I admit it."

"You admit the murder?" Trucy said, putting a finger to her mouth thoughtfully.

"No, of course not, you little brat. I admit I was cheating on Clay, alright?" she said, and Apollo noticed that her plait was beginning to come undone, "but I didn't kill Bernie!"

Apollo's bracelet reacting to "I didn't kill Bernie" was all the proof he needed. Unfortunately, the court would not see the subtle curling of her fingers into a fist the same way.

"How does this change anything, Mr. Justice?" Trucy said thoughtfully, "the witness' reasoning still stands if she didn't know that the defendant was aware of her infidelity. And it just cements the defendant's motive, too." Apollo cringed. He should have known Trucy was going to start pushing back sooner or later.

"It also cements the witness' motive!" Apollo yelled.

"Did you forget about all the evidence pointing to the defendant?" Trucy said, "for instance, the model that the victim had on him. It belongs to the defendant. Wouldn't it make sense if the victim grabbed it and put it in his pocket just as he was passing out, in order to implicate the defendant?"

"Why, yes," the Judge said, "it would. If Ms. Zuvan were the real killer, why would the victim grab a model that had the _defendant's_ name on it?"

"It could have been planted!" Apollo yelled, pounding on his desk.

"Only the victim's fingerprints were on it," Trucy said, "at least, those were the only recoverable ones."

"There weren't any fingerprints on the Zolpidem bottle, either!" Apollo shouted, "the real killer must have been wearing gloves!"

"Then why aren't the victim's fingerprint's more smudged?" Trucy said, "if it had been put in the victim's pocket by someone wearing gloves, we would have been able to tell."

"In that case, the one who put the Luna 2 model in the pocket was the victim himself," Apollo said.

"Which would implicate Clay," Badriyyah interjected drily.

"Not if the victim didn't know that the model belonged to him!" Apollo shouted, pointing, "He could have assumed that it belonged to the real killer - after all, she certainly has very many similar models. The fact that he grabbed one that originally belonged to my client is a complete coincidence!"

"And you believe that all the other evidence against the defendant could have easily been manipulated by the witness?" Trucy said.

"Of course!"

"Objection!" said Trucy, "Mr. Justice, at what point would she have had the opportunity to plant the Zolpidem bottle after the murder?"

"Eh?" Apollo said, then pressed his finger to his forehead, "well, the victim was killed around 11:15, and I didn't arrive at our apartment until around midnight. That leaves a 45 minute window for her to plant the Zolpidem bottle."

"But Ms. Zuvan's apartment is near Gourd Lake, which is about 40 minutes away from People Park by car - even longer if you're walking. Unless you mean to say that Ms. Zuvan somehow drowned Mr. Dejeu in _your_ apartment?" Trucy said.

"Well, no, of course not," Apollo said, sweating, "she doesn't have a key, and it was unoccupied at the time of the murder, so there was no one to let her in."

"So there was no way for her to plant the Zolpidem at your apartment after the murder," Trucy said, "because by the time she got to your apartment, you would have already been home."

Apollo recoiled. That was true. But wait- "How do we know she planted it _after_ the murder?"

"What do you mean, Mr. Justice?" the Judge said.

"I mean," Apollo said, pressing his finger against his forehead, "she could have very well planted it _before_ the murder. She could have had another bottle of Zolpidem prepared, or she could have taken as many pills as she would have needed in advance. Either way, she would have had plenty of opportunity to plant it before the murder - and also plenty of opportunity to plant my client's fingerprints on them." He crossed his arms and smirked. "That's the real reason, of course, as to why the fingerprints are placed so oddly. Mr. Terran was most likely sleeping when Ms. Zuvan put the bottle in his bare hand."

"So, basically," Trucy said, completely unperturbed, "all of our evidence can go one way or the other." Badriyyah was sweating.

"There's also the fact that the original tip meant to get arrested used a voice-changer," Apollo said, "Ms. Zuvan could have been the one who called it in."

"So could Mr. Terran," Trucy said.

"Why would he do that?!" Apollo demanded.

"Because he knew the whole time that you would defend him in court," Trucy said, wagging her finger, "which is why he specifically set up the whole crime to make it look as though he were being framed."

"Yes, that's exactly it," Badriyyah said, grinning triumphantly, although her fists were shaking.

"That's awfully clever of him," the Judge said.

"Hold it!" Apollo yelled, "your Honor! There's still one piece of evidence that _can't_ go one way or the other!"

"The wagon," said Trucy, bouncing, "specifically, the blood on the handle."

"Yes," Apollo said, "most likely, the victim fought back before succumbing to the soporifics, so the real killer was still bleeding when they dumped the body."

"Hmm," said the Judge, "Miss Wright, was the defendant injured when he was arrested?"

"Not that we know of," Trucy said brightly, "although he wasn't thoroughly examined when he was first arrested. It's possible that by the time he was checked over for any wounds - which was yesterday - they had already healed."

"Were there any scabs or anything like that?" Apollo said.

"A few, according to the medical report," Trucy said, pulling it out of her hat, "but it was impossible to determine if they had come from the night of the crime, or before, or after."

"But it's also possible that Ms. Zuvan could be hiding any injuries, too," Apollo said.

"Hmph. And to think I almost gave you the chance yesterday to see for yourself that I'm not," Badriyyah said lightly. For some reason, as soon as Trucy mentioned the blood on the wagon, she had suddenly began holding herself with the self-assurance that only someone who knew they could very well get away with murder could - someone like Kristoph Gavin.

Chills went down Apollo's spine.

"A-Anyway, the blood - and the fingerprints - on the wagon handle must belong to the real killer," Apollo pressed forward. Badriyyah couldn't talk her way out of this one. "Which means they belong to you, Ms. Zuvan!" Apollo shouted forcefully, pointing at Badriyyah dramatically. She bared her teeth at him. The gallery flared up into discussion.

Just then, the doors of the courtroom flew open, and in ran Ema, manilla envelope in hand.

"Ah, this must be the results on the wagon," the Judge said. Apollo let out a breath that he didn't know he'd been holding in, crossed his arms, and grinned at Badriyyah.

"Well, Ema?" Trucy said, leaning over her bench, "what are they?"

Ema gave Apollo a brief look, then pulled a piece of paper out of the envelope and read out for the court: "The blood on the handle of the wagon, and the fingerprints in them, is that of… Clay Terran."

Silence fell over the court. Clay's name echoed in Apollo's head. _No… that can't be. _Badriyyah started laughing wildly again. Her plait had completely unraveled, and her hair flew freely down around her neck, framing her wickedly triumphant face. _Did Ema really just say…?_

"WHAT?!" screamed Apollo, finding his voice at last. He slammed his fists on the defense bench. "Detective Skye! Are you sure about the results?!"

"Of course," Ema said. Her expression was a mixture of _Ha, I was right_ and _I'm sorry I couldn't help you_. "There's no doubt about it. The blood is Terran's, the fingerprints are Terran's."

"Th-that can't be right," Apollo said. Had he missed something? How could it be Clay's blood? "Detective Skye… are you sure that it's from the time of the murder?"

"W-Well, it's been in the lake a few days," Ema said, unable to look at Apollo, "so it's a little hard to tell, but yes, it's entirely possible that it's from the time of the murder."

"But it's also possible that it could be from before the murder?" Apollo said desperately. There had to be some way to explain this away - there had to be some way to prove that Badriyyah was the real killer!

"Yes," was all Ema said.

"Well, the defense did just spend the last fifteen minutes explaining why the wagon was such decisive evidence, so… the defendant must be guilty," Trucy said, her trepidation from the first day of trial returning on those last five words.

"I suppose I'll hand my verdict down now, then," the Judge said after a brief pause, "this court finds the defendant, Clay Terran…"

"OBJECTION!"

It took Apollo a moment to realize that the one who objected had been him. He couldn't see a way out of this, but… there had to be one. There just had to.

"Yes, Mr. Justice?" the Judge said.

"Th-this trial isn't over yet!" Apollo shouted. What was he even doing? "Clay isn't the killer!"

"What, you're still going to claim _I_ am?" Badriyyah said haughtily, "Face it, Mr. Justice: you lost. Clay's done for! And I had nothing to do with it! That wagon proves it-"

"No," Apollo said, "that wagon proves _you_ did it."

The gallery started murmuring again. "What do you mean, Mr. Justice?" the Judge said, shocked.

"Um," Apollo said. What _did_ he mean? Why did he say that?! "W-Well… the fingerprints!" he said abruptly, "if my client wasn't the killer, but his were the only fingerprints on the handle of the wagon, then the real killer must have worn gloves!"

The Judge shook his head. "Mr. Justice, I'm afraid I-"

"Objection!" Trucy said, "your Honor. I'd like to see where he's going with this. Please?" she added, flashing a very cute smile.

"Well… I suppose so," said the Judge, "but if this doesn't lead anywhere, Mr. Justice, I won't give you any more second chances."

"Th-thank you, your Honor," Apollo said, although he didn't feel very relieved. Gloves… gloves… "As I was saying," he said, hoping the "make things up as you go along" strategy would serve him as well as it did Mr. Wright, "the real killer must have used gloves. So, if they were touching the bloody wagon handle with their gloves… the blood must have gotten on the gloves!" Apollo finished the sentence in a shout.

"B-Blood on the gloves?" Badriyyah said, suddenly going pale, and taking a step back.

"It's possible," Ema said thoughtfully, "of course, if the blood had gotten there in the first place like the defense claimed earlier, the traces would be very minute… but it's still possible."

That was exactly what Apollo needed. "So!" he said, "we need to find these gloves!"

"If they existed, they would have been destroyed along with the GYAXA jacket," Trucy pointed out.

"Exactly," Apollo said confidently, crossing his arms, "so, if the burnt fabric in the incinerator at Run Down Inn contains traces of the defendant's blood… it would be _impossible_ for my client to be the murderer, since he would have had no way to burn evidence in that incinerator!" He pointed at Badriyyah. "And that would prove that _Ms. Zuvan is the real killer!_"

There was brief lag as the gallery discussed Apollo's declaration. As the Judge banged his gavel to quiet them down, Ema suddenly yelled, "I'll go check it out!" and tore out of the courtroom.

"Wait!" Badriyyah screeched, turning to reach out to Ema. She wasn't looking so smug now. "Detective Skye, NO-!" But she was gone. Badriyyah whirled around disorientedly, facing the court again. Her hateful, hurt glare fell on Apollo. "You- you-!" She jerked forward, almost collapsing, but catching herself on the stand. "I'll never forgive you for this…!"

"Face it, Ms. Zuvan," Apollo said, crossing his arms and smirking, "you lost."

She looked back up at him through her hair, which was falling in her eyes. "Shut up," she hissed, "you don't know what it was like. Bernie - he was going to tell Clay th-that I was cheating on him. I couldn't let that happen. I _had_ to kill him."

"Badri," Clay said, suddenly standing up, "Badri, I already knew-"

"How was I supposed to know that?!" Badriyyah snapped, then buried her head in her arms, moaning dejectedly. "If he'd've driven you away from me - I would've died. It was him or me, Clay. I - I had no choice… I'm sorry. I only framed you because I knew your friend would get you off the hook... I wasn't expecting him to figure it all out...!"

Clay gave her a very long, sad look, then sat down again without saying anything. He looked firmly at the floor.

The Judge coughed. "Well," he said, "that was certainly one of the most last-minute turnabouts I've ever seen. In any case, this court hereby finds the defendant, Clay Terran… **NOT GUILTY**."

The crowd cheered. Confetti fell. In the defendant's box, and at the witness stand, two people stood perfectly still, apart from the slight tremors of repressed sobs.

"This court is adjourned!"

* * *

_June 30, 3:00 PM, District Court, Defendant's Lobby #9_

Trucy opened the door to the Defendant's Lobby a crack and peered in. There was Apollo - she was proud of him, snatching victory out of the jaws of defeat like he did. And there was Terran, whose face was buried in his hands, his shoulders shaking.

"You'll be fine," Apollo was saying, "you obviously didn't mean that much to her, anyway."

"Sh-she _killed_ over me, Apollo!" Terran wailed, although it was muffled.

"She was also cheating on you," Apollo pointed out, "forget about her. Besides, eighteen months from now, you'll be at least 225,000 miles away from her."

"B-But Apollo…" Terran said, but Trucy couldn't hear what he said next, so she figured that was as good a time as any to enter the room.

"Hi, Polly, Mr. Terran," Trucy said cheerfully, "congratulations on your 'not guilty' verdict!"

"O-Oh, hi, Trucy," Apollo said as Terran rapidly wiped his eyes and composed himself. He had obviously just been crying. "Um," Apollo said in a much lower voice, "who's that?"

"This is Aunt Franziska," Trucy said, gesturing towards Franziska, who had followed her into the Defendant's Lobby. "I kept asking her for advice on this case, so she wanted to watch the last day of trial."

"Yes," Franziska said, "that was an impressive bit of deduction at the very end there, Apollo Justice."

"Oh, r-really?" Apollo said, eyeing Franziska's whip nervously, "thank you very much, Ms., um, von Karma?" He glanced at Terran as if to say _Am I remembering that correctly?_, to which Terran shrugged.

"You are welcome," Franziska said, crossing her arms, "of course, I should expect nothing less of someone capable of defeating my prodigy protégée, Trucy Wright."

"…yeah," Apollo said, looking at Trucy, then grinning. "Come to think of it, you've never lost a court case before, have you, Trucy? I guess I just broke your winning streak-"

Trucy knew, of course, that Apollo had made a horrible mistake as soon as the word "broke" had left his lips, but Apollo himself was not aware of that until Franziska's whip hit him. The first time. Which was immediately followed by many more whiplashes.

"Um, Aunt Franziska, I don't really mind losing," Trucy said as Apollo slumped to the floor and Terran started flipping out. "I mean, finding the truth is the most important thing."

"Hmph… of course," Franziska said, recoiling her whip, "however, that is no excuse to mock you for your first defeat."

Trucy looked down at Apollo. She wasn't really sure that was any excuse to whip him into unconsciousness, but that was just what Franziska did. "I was gonna invite him to dinner with us, though," Trucy said, crossing her arms and pouting, "and Mr. Terran, too."

"Hmm? Dinner?" Terran said, looking up from where he was kneeling beside Apollo.

"Yep," Trucy said, bouncing on her heels, "Uncle Edgeworth owes us a treat, and it's traditional to invite people along whenever he's paying, but Uncle Larry's in France right now, so Daddy suggested I invite Polly and you. Aunt Franziska's coming, too."

"Oh, really," Terran said, giving Franziska a long look (to which she stretched her whip threateningly), then smiling widely. It looked a little funny, considering his eyes were still all puffy and red. "Well, I accept your invitation, Prosecutor Wright, and I accept on Apollo's behalf, too. Free food is always great!"

"You can call me Trucy," she said, adjusting her hat.

"In that case, call me Clay, dude," he said brightly, "oh, and thanks for helping Apollo out in there! I don't know what he would've done without you!"

"…I… heard that…" Apollo mumbled from the floor.

"Hey, she didn't kill him after all!" Clay said in mock-surprise, helping Apollo up. Honestly, Trucy was a little surprised that he didn't get whipped over that, but judging by Franziska's amused smirk, all was well that ended well.

* * *

**A/N: It was pretty tense for a minute there, eh? Eh? The whole thing about it being Clay's blood was honestly added last minute because I realized it would be too boring if were Badriyyah's blood after all. That's why this chapter took so long: I kept getting stuck on how I could possibly turn it into evidence against Badriyyah! Of course, it is still, technically speaking, circumstantial... so who knows, you may be seeing her in the sequel~?**

**Anyway, one chapter left! The epilogue will be similar to the prologue in that it'll touch on the other two cases in AA4, and may or may not involve a minor case for Trucy to prosecute. I'm not actually sure, since I haven't written it yet... not that it's a terribly important chapter. If you're just here for the case, you may leave now.**

**But this certainly won't be the last you see of Prosecutor Wright!**


	6. Epilogue

**A/N: Extremely short chapter ahead! Really, all this is just acknowledging the rest of AJ as being a game that exists. It's not Trucy had a whole lot to do with the last two cases, to be honest, so her not really being there for court didn't change... anything, really...**

* * *

_July 7, 8:05 PM, Sunshine Coliseum, Backstage Hallway_

As far as Trucy was concerned, dinner with (some of, anyway) her family, plus Apollo and Clay, had gone well. As far as Apollo was concerned, it had not. He had had to sit next to Franziska and apparently the whole time was thinking that he would not make it to dessert. Trucy thought it was kind of funny, honestly. Even Franziska wouldn't whip someone in a nice restaurant, unless she really, really wanted to. So, basically, the evening had gone well. Both Apollo and Clay had some pretty funny stories about the Cosmos Space Center (and especially its director, and also the roboticist) that they shared. Edgeworth mentioned a murder that had happened there six years ago, although evidently there wasn't much to it, at least that he was going to go into, anyway.

Somehow, this had led to them discussing Klavier, which Trucy had fun doing, since she was a big fan of his music. Aunt Franziska expressed interest in meeting him, how cool was that! And speaking of Klavier, he had invited Trucy and Apollo to his "Guilty as Charged" Tour for 20% off! Unfortunately for Trucy (and fortunately for Apollo), Franziska had to leave the country (where did she go again? Zheng Fa?) a few days prior, so her meeting with Klavier would have to wait. Trucy really did wonder how that would go.

At any rate, Trucy was enjoying herself. Apollo was not.

"The Gavinners: putting the 'sick' back in 'music'," Apollo groaned. He was rubbing his ears in apparent pain.

"Don't be mean, Polly," Trucy said. Was it just her, or was Apollo kind of jealous of Klavier's talent? There wasn't much romance in Chords of Steel, after all. "I know! Let's go to Klavier's dressing room! Like a couple of VIPs!" Not such a good idea in retrospect, considering Apollo wouldn't stop making snide comments while Trucy gushed over Klavier… or at least he did until they met Lamiroir. Apollo seemed to like her. They also met her manager/interpreter/bodyguard, Romein LeTouse. And Machi Tobaye. Trucy thought he was cute.

Also, Klavier's guitar caught on fire. It was funny until Trucy found out that it _wasn't_ intentional. Whoops. And Romien LeTouse was shot.

Typical.

* * *

_July 8, 9:45 AM, District Court, Defendant's Lobby #3_

Apollo was pretty confident that this would be an easy trial. After all, Machi was only 14. Although the police were probably thinking that if a 15-year-old could be a prosecutor, a 14-year-old could be a murderer.

Speaking of 15-year-old prosecutors, Apollo didn't know why exactly Trucy was in here.

"Don't you have a trial in…" Apollo checked his watch. "Fifteen minutes?"

"I already prepared the witnesses," Trucy said cheerfully, "and I heard you were taking the case Klavier's prosecuting today, so I thought I'd check it out."

"I guess Prosecutor Gavin told you about it, then?" Apollo said.

"Actually, no," Trucy said, crossing her arms, "but I figured he'd be assigned to this case. As soon as Uncle Edgeworth saw the paperwork for it he asked if Detective Crescend had lost his mind."

"…why was he asking you that?" Apollo said.

"I think it was a rhetorical question," Trucy said, "I just so happened to be in his office at the time, since I was taking a nap on his couch."

"He just lets you do that?"

"Yeah."

Apollo stared at her. Granted, he had really only met the chief prosecutor once, but he definitely hadn't seemed as laid-back as Trucy always made him sound. This must be what Ema was complaining about when she said Edgeworth let Trucy get away with _everything_.

"Anyway, he usually assigns cases like that to Klavier," Trucy said.

"Yeah, you told me," Apollo said, "but Prosecutor Gavin wanted to take it anyway."

"Oh, okay," Trucy said. Apollo checked his watch again. "I should probably go now," Trucy said, picking up the hint. She left, and Apollo sighed. Sometimes he really wondered about her.

* * *

_October 7, 4:20 PM, Prosecutorial Offices, Trucy Wright's Office_

Naturally, Apollo had won Klavier's case. And Detective Crescend hadn't lost his mind, he was just trying not to get caught. But in the end, he had been. And _then_ he lost his mind.

But that was all old news now. What Trucy was excited about now was the end to the secret mission that Phoenix had mentioned. The end being the revival of the Jurist system… hopefully, anyway.

There was a knock at her door. "Who iiiiiis it?" Trucy said.

"It's me," Phoenix said, opening up the door and holding up an envelope and a CD sleeve in one hand. "Got a minute?"

"Of course, Daddy," Trucy said brightly, putting down the file she was going over, "what's up?"

"Just came by to drop these off," Phoenix said with a little half-smile, and placed the envelope and the CD on Trucy's desk. Trucy picked up the envelope - it had a Gramarye seal on it. _Huh_. "Don't open that until later, though."

"Oh… okay," Trucy said, putting the envelope down again and picking up the CD instead. "What's this, Daddy?"

"MASON System deleted scenes," Phoenix said.

"…huh?"

"Nevermind," Phoenix laughed, "you're not really involved in the trial. Anyway, I couldn't figure out how to turn off the camera," he tapped the face pin on his beanie, "so I ended up with a lot of extra footage. I put all your magic tricks on one CD; figured you might want it."

"Thanks," Trucy said, turning the CD sleeve over. Phoenix had written "Cute magic tricks!" on it in large letters. "So what else was in the extra footage?"

"Blackmail material?" Phoenix said, then laughed again. "I need to get going."

Trucy glanced at the clock. She could probably get away with leaving early, since the case she was supposed to prosecute was still in the middle of investigation. The actual arrest probably wouldn't be made for at least a few more days, actually. "I'll go with you!" she said, standing up.

"If you want to leave now, I won't stop you," Phoenix said, "but I'm not taking you with me. You can hang out at home alone if you want."

"…I could always go see what Polly's doing," Trucy said, crossing her arms, "this is a special case, right? So he could use all the help he can get."

"No objections here," Phoenix said, smiling, "he's probably ended up at Sunshine Coliseum by now."

"Then I'll go over there," Trucy said, sticking her tongue out.

And the rest was history.

* * *

**Thanks to all the readers and reviewers that made this fic a success! I'm glad you all liked my AU.**

**Yes, again, I will be doing a sequel to this, but it will be separate fic. It probably won't have the same "prologue - case - epilogue" format, either. Maybe. It is a convenient format if the case is set midway through the game, but Trucy's role in DD was literally almost nothing except for one thing that Trucy being a prosecutor would not affect at all, really, so the next fic in this line will probably just end up being pure casefic with a reference to the aforementioned one thing tacked onto the end.**

**Oh, and also! I'll be entering Badriyyah Zuvan, Hans Dromeda, Mal Keyway, and Magel Laniklowd into the OC contest at court-records, since this fic is finally finished and doesn't break the length requirement. Wish me luck!**


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